Laura Brownlow, Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

I currently work within a Tier 4 adolescent eating disorder service working with both inpatients & outpatients as well as offering a Dietetic service to the child and adolescent mental health inpatient unit based in Chester.
I work within a team consisting of Consultant Psychiatrists, Specialist Doctors and Nurses, Clinical Psychologists & Specialist Therapists.

My main roles involve:

• initial nutritional intake assessment;
• maximising the meal plan to support weight gain & nutritional balance;
• ensuring that appropriate deficiencies are assessed & supplemented if relevant;
• providing psychoeducation to the young person & families regarding macro & micro-nutrients, distorted feelings of hunger or satiety, nutrition & metabolism, compensatory behaviours, fluids & constipation, fluids & diuretics, over-eating/bingeing, puberty & effects on menstruation.

This role also involves providing staff training regarding Dietetics & eating disorders as well as offering advice & training to other acute & community Dietitians when dealing with service users with eating disorders.

So, this all started back in 1993 when I showed at interest in Dietetics whilst at school, however, was told that jobs were sparse at that time so I should instead work in the Food Industry. I did a BSc in Food Science & Nutrition to then start work within the development, processing & technical areas of food production. I graduated from Food technologist to Food Development & Technical Manager working with major retailers in the UK & abroad to get food products from concept to launch in-store involving, development, costing, factory pilot production, shelf-life testing, organoleptic assessments, packaging development & transport trials.

I loved this job for a number of years, however, the very competitive nature of the world of retail became too toxic for me and I decided I needed to retrain. I came to the end of a maternity cover contract & decided enough was enough.

I took some time out to travel to Cameroon to volunteer, teaching biology and nutrition in a nursing school. When I returned and visited an adult career advise service Dietetics was still top of the list as a career to pursue.

I completed some supplementary modules in Biochemistry, Anatomy and Physiology to bridge my skills gap, then worked as a full-time care worker for people with complex care needs before moving onto the postgraduate course in Nutrition & Dietetics.