Information for Carers

In this section you will find useful information for people caring for someone with an eating disorder, their family or friends.

By 'carer' we mean anyone who provides help and support to someone with an eating disorder. This could mean a parent, step-parent, partner, child, brother, sister, other relative, colleague, teacher, or simply a good friend. You might be older or younger than the person you support, you might see them every day or less often, and you may or may not live with them.

The information in this section aims to help support you in your caring role, and direct you to information and other services that might be helpful.

As part of the Carers' Project, we are currently working on developing these pages to make them more useful for carers. If you have any suggestions for the pages you would like to share with us, please email h.woodhouse@b-eat.co.uk

Please click on the links in the content list below, or the menu on the left hand side of the page to visit the pages in this section.

New Resource for Schools

Here at beat we have just started work on a new project to create resources for schools. In order to find out about your experiences with schools and what can be done to improve their knowledge and skills, a questionnaire has been developed for carers, young people and siblings to answer. We would really appreciate it if you took the time to answer the questionniare, which can be found here It is very simple and shouldn't take long to complete! Thank you.

Advice for Employers of Carers

Employers for Carers is an innovative new service for employers supported by Carers UK. They provide advice, information and support to help employers retain staff who also have caring responsibilities. Their website can be viewed by clicking here.

Local Carers Consultations

This year Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts are undertaking joint consultations on local carers services and support. We need to make sure the views and specific needs of people caring for someone with an eating disorder are heard. To find out more information about the consultations and how you can get involved, please click here

Carers' Project and Siblings' Project

Here at beat we are currently working on enhancing the services we provide for people who are caring for someone with an eating disorder, and the brothers and sisters of people with an eating disorder. Some questionnaires filled in by carers, siblings and professionals provided us with some fantastic ideas for new resources; some leaflets and webpages for siblings and carers, and an information sharing programme for beat's helpline team, so that they have access to up-to-date information to provide the carers contacting them. These will be developed over the next couple of years. For more information about the findings of the questionnaires, please click here!

In conjunction with Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2009, we launched some new dedicated project pages on this website.

To find out more about the project for carers, please click here!

For more information about the project for brothers and sisters, please click here!

To find out about other projects that beat are currently running, please follow this link!

Liverpool Conference for Carers

Eating Disorders: Getting to the heart of the experience

Talking Eating Disorders in conjunction with Liverpool John Moores University and Institute for Health Research will hold a one day carers conference on 7th September 2009

Featuring Keynote speakers Professor Janet Treasure (Guys Hospital) and Professor Simon Gowers (Cheshire & Merseyside Eating Disorders Service). Also with Susan Ringwood (beat CEO) and Dr Sandeep Ranote (Liverpool John Moores University).

For more information please click here.

Caring with Confidence Programme

The Caring with Confidence Programme provides self-study courses for carers in England. These are not specific to carers of people with eating disorders, but are meant for anyone in a caring role. You can find more information about these courses and other services that Caring with Confidence offer by looking at their website: www.caringwithconfidence.net

Useful Links

• There is a carers section on our message board and links ot other carers organisations on our links page.
• You can download our leaflets and information sheets in the publications section
  
• NICE has published guidence on the treatment of eating disorders for carers
• You can also find carer's Self Help Network groups on our HelpFinder directory
• You can take part in research into eating disorders here