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Liberating the NHS?
The new Government has published a white paper, 'Liberating the NHS', detailing their approach to the National Health Service and how services should be commissioned and delivered.
This is an important opportunity for you to help us campaign, to raise awareness of eating disorders and make sure that the restructured NHS provides the treatment and support that people need.
The restructure involves abolishing Primary Care Trusts, who currently commission all services. Some low volume but high intensity services, which includes specialist eating disorder services, are provided separately and will not be affected by this restructure. However, these specialist services are not appropriate for people with moderate eating disorders, so our campaiging will include understanding the needs of these people, why they need treatment and support to prevent their eating disorder worsening.
Our campaign is focused on raising awareness of eating disorders in primary care, making sure that GPs can recognise eating disorders and provide appropriate treatment and care for sufferers, their families and carers.
The new GP commissioning groups will be able to commission local services, and we want them to understand the importance of self help and support groups, and help them to provide the services and support that people need in their area.
What can you do?
Contact your MP: Write to your MP or make an appointment to see them at their constituency surgery. Use this opportunity to tell them about your experience of eating disorders, why support and treatment is important and what you want them to do. The beat 21 section of the website includes details of how to contact your MP, tips for writing to them and how to structure a meeting with them. You can find all of this here.
Join your Local Involvement Network (LINk): Every area has a patient involvement forum, known as LINk groups. These groups have powers to question NHS services and are valuable tools for engaging with your local NHS services. They bring together people interested in specific issues, and provide a collective, local voice for those issues. You can find the details of your local LINk through your local NHS website or GP surgery. Please let us know if you have joined your LINk and we can help you put questions and comments forward through them. For more information about LINks please contact info@b-eat.co.uk or call 0300 123 3355.
Become a Media Contact: We are always looking for more people to tell their stories in the media. We have daily requests to provide case studies to make interesting stories that people can relate to. If you have personal or family experience of an eating disorder we would love to hear from you. Please contact media@b-eat.co.uk or call 0300 123 7061.
Tweet us: We have a Twitter feed that we use to promote our work, tell you about media stories and raise awareness of eating disorders. Join Twitter and follow us, retweet our tweets and let all your followers know about what we do. Instructions on how to join and use Twitter can be found here.
Involve your MP! A call to action…
We need your help to make sure eating disorders are brought to the attention of members of parliament from all the political parties. You can find out more about the beat 21 campaign and request a Campaign Pack here.
Petitions have long been sent to the Prime Minister by post or delivered to the Number 10 door in person. You can now both create and sign petitions on the Downing Street website too, giving you the opportunity to reach a potentially wider audience and to deliver your petition directly to Downing Street.
Petition the Government to raise awareness of eating disorders and challenge stereotypes
Petition the Government to add eating disorders to the PSHE curriculum
There will be two Early Day Motions for Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2010 tabled by Norman Lamb MP and Jo Swinson MP. An Early Day Motion, is a notice of a motion made by a member of parliament that is not generally expected to be debated. The reason for tabling (or presenting) an EDM is to draw attention to an issue, and to gather support for it by inviting other members of parliament to sign the motion. The more members of Parliament sign an EDM the more likely it is that government will act on the issue. It also helps organisations like beat to discover who is likely to be sympathetic to any eating disorder related issues.
Early Day Motions 2010:
EDM 875: This House congratulates leading UK charity beat on 21 years of achievements in supporting the 1.6 million people in the country affected by an eating disorder, and calls for a continued commitment from all parties to provide the high quality, specialist treatment needed to beat an eating disorder.
EDM 878: That this House notes that 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by eating disorders; further notes that an increasing body of research indicates that the media has a role in both providing a social context for the development and mainenance of eating disorders; further notes that the Royal College of Psychiatrists suggests that the irresponsible use of digital enhancement or airbrushing is one aspect of this problem; urges the Government to establish a forum for the development of an editorial ethical code regarding the media's portrayal of body critical issues and the Committee on Advertising Practice to introduce a kitemark scheme to declare the extent to which digital retouching technology has been used to create overly-perfected and unrealistic images of women and men, as suggested by the Royal College; and encourages the promotion of media literacy within schools as outlined by the eating disorders charity beat in its new manifesto.
Please help to support these motions by contacting your MP, to ask them to sign the relevant motion. By visiting their ‘surgery’ or writing a letter to your MP you will help to raise awareness of the problems confronting people affected by an eating disorder. You can find out how to contact your MP here
You can also ask your MP to raise issues on eating disorders with other MPs, such as the Secretary of State for Health. Some of the debates, questions and outcomes asked already are listed below.
Parliamentary Debate
7th March 2007: Dr. Ian Gibson (Norwich, North) (Lab)
Started a debate in the House of Commons about eating disorders with particular reference to a case in his own constituency, the NICE guidelines, improving diagnosis by GPs and improving care.
You can read the full transcript, including responses from The Minister of State, Department of Health (Ms Rosie Winterton) here
20th March 2007: Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley) (Labour)
Asked the Secretary of State for Health what steps she plans to take over the next two years to tackle eating disorders.
Read her response here
22nd March 2007: Ian Gibson (Norwich North) (Labour)
Asked the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has for the funding of research into eating disorders.
Read her response here
*** £2m has now been allocated to fund research, read our press release here ***
6th June 2007: Ian Gibson (Norwich North) (Labour)
Before my hon. Friend starts to get into the details, I want to compliment him and our hon. Friend the Member for Worsley on their sterling work. I just had a thought: I have been involved in work on eating disorders, and when we changed the name of an organisation it suddenly became very dynamic and reached a new plateau of support. I often wonder about the words that are used. Perhaps the word “carer” is just a little less aggressive than it could be. We might need something much more positive to define the sterling work that people do in that field. “Carers” sounds like they are depending on someone, when it is the other way around. I do not know whether the organisations have thought of a new way to define it.
Dr. Francis: That would probably require a separate debate. I can imagine my hon. Friend wanting carers to be called “revolutionaries” or something as radical as that.
6th June 2007: Sarah Teather (Brent East) (Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children diagnosed with eating disorders before the age of 15 years subsequently achieved five GCSEs at level A-C in each of the last 10 years.
Jim Knight: The information requested is not available.
Read the full transcript here
6th June 2007: Sarah Teather (Brent East) (Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children between the ages of 10 and 18 years were treated for (a) bulimia and (b) anorexia in each of the last 10 years.
Read her response here
18th June 2007: Ian Gibson (Norwich North) (Labour)
Does my hon. Friend agree that many of the people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia are often quite young and need support, which has not been forthcoming? We should therefore consider them just as seriously, because this is a somewhat new area of endeavour.
Read the response here
19th July 2007: Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) (Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 6 June 2007, Official Report, column 568W, on eating disorders: children, if he will break down the numbers of finished consultant episodes in each year from 1996-97 to 2005-06 by (a) region and (b) primary care trust.
Read the response here
23rd October 2007: David Drew (Stroud) (Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the Government's policy is on the treatment of anorexia; and what research is being (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned by his Department.
Read the response here
13th December 2007: Stephen Williams (Bristol West) (Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which primary care trusts provide specialist eating disorder services for those aged under 13 years.
Read the response here
21st February 2008: Mark Hunter (Cheadle) (Liberal Democrat)
As the Deputy Leader of the House might be aware, next week has been designated national eating disorders awareness week.
Read his full statement here
3rd April 2008: Theresa May (Maidenhead) (Conservative)
The number of people affected by eating disorders in the UK is 1.1 million. On Tuesday, Professor Janet Treasure said that the fashion industry's obsession with thinness has "a dangerous influence on the public."
Yesterday, the Periodical Publishers Association announced that its editors were reconsidering the practice of airbrushing pictures of models in their magazines. The private sector is developing a clear strategy for dealing with eating disorders, but when will the Government do the same? Will the right hon. and learned Lady make a statement outlining Government policy on eating disorders, body image and the media?
Read the response here
7th May 2008: Helen Southworth (Warrington South) (Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the (a) need for and (b) (i) current and (ii) planned future provision of treatment of eating disorders in each primary care trust in the North West.
Read the response here
