National Health and Wellbeing Campaigns

Eating Disorders Awareness Week – 1st – 7th March 2021

Each year, Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, runs Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Beat’s purpose is to end the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders which affect around 1.25 million people in the UK. Beat provides services to encourage and empower people to get help quickly, equips family and friends with essential skills and advice and campaigns to increase knowledge of eating disorders and for better funding for treatment.

This year the campaign is focusing on binge eating disorder. Beat advises that more people live with binge eating disorder than anorexia or bulimia. It’s more common than most people think and can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background. You might not think you know anyone affected by binge eating disorder, but you probably do.

Binge eating disorder will affect one in fifty people in their lifetime.

This year, those living with binge eating disorder have told their story through this animation from Beat

The support offered by the RCS to its staff from our partners at Togetherall and the Employee Assistance Programme – Workplace Options EAP  could help someone in need of support regarding an eating disorder.

Please visit the linked pages above for more contact information and for Togetherall, the login is simply your RCS email.


Additional Resources

We’ve also recently received some great resources to share from one of our HE networks. The links below take you to external content on the Bournemouth University YouTube page which details individual experiences of living with an eating disorder.

These are student centred resources which we hope will perhaps provide our staff with a greater understanding of the types of disorders, their impact and the role that teachers and lecturers can have in providing support.

Me and My Best Friend Anorexia

Hope will share her harrowing but inspiring story of recovery. She will provide practical steps on recovery, equip you to support one another whilst managing your own mental health at University. This talk is for staff, students and parents who are interested in mental health, supporting one another and to learn how to manage your own mental health at University. Currently over 100,000 YouTube views.

Practical Strategies for Supporting Students with Eating Disorders

Pooky provides clear, practical advice for teachers and lecturers who are concerned about a student and want to provide sustainable support without fear of doing harm. The session will answer your questions about eating disorders and you’ll go away with a range of practical ideas you can easily implement.

Anorexia and Autism – lessons learned on the road to recovery

Pooky has a long history of anorexia and felt like she was constantly walking through the revolving doors of illness and recovery. When hospitalised for anorexia in 2017, she was diagnosed with autism. This led to radical revision of her treatment and she finally found herself able to understand and take a grip of the illness that had controlled her for so long. In this talk, Pooky will share some of the lessons learned along the way and provide some ideas for how we might tailor our support for eating disorder patients on the autistic spectrum.

Anorexia Nervosa: The Reality and The Recovery

John Evans talks about his own experiences of living with Anorexia Nervosa in support of Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2018 held at Bournemouth University.

Recovering from an eating disorder: hope, strength and life

People in Dorset talking about their own lived experience of eating disorders.