Physical Wellness

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week Introduces Online Forum

By Anne Collins | Update Date: Feb 28, 2017 08:30 AM EST

Beat, a charity that researches on eating disorder, has conducted a survey for Eating Disorders Awareness Week that will run from Feb. 27 to March 5. They found that half of those suffering from eating disorders have received good or very good health care. The other half rate poor or very poor according to their survey of nearly 1,700 people.

It is the largest ranging survey of eating disorder sufferers, it discovered that GP's do not receive sufficient training to equip them to deal with these sufferers and their families. It showed the 55 percent felt that the GP did not understand the importance of early intervention and 34 percent felt confident that the GP knew how to help them.

The survey revealed that only one in five of the GPs provided patients with information about eating disorders. Elizabeth McNaught, 25, had an eating disorder when she was younger and believes if her GP had more training she wouldn't have lost years of her life.

According to Lancashire Post, training on eating disorders has not changed much since the 90's. There are around 725,000 people in the UK affected by eating disorders. Chief Executive Andrew Radford of Beat said it is not about blaming GP's but enabling support from trained GP's to help train others.

PR Newswire reported that Eating Disorder Hope has announced new membership opportunities and online forums to help kick off National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. It empowers 280,000 visitors each month to play a more active role in the online recovery community. Their membership levels include Individual Committed to Recovery, Friends & Family, Professional, and Organization/Treatment Center to help meet the needs of online community.

Resources are free for the public but members have exclusive access to monthly/quarterly groups, private forums, First Annual Online Recovery Conference, and more. Half of 2017 membership fees will be donated to their partner Project HEAL's eating disorder treatment scholarships.  

They have also partnered with top treatment centers across the country and now offers international resources. All members who sign up before June 1 will receive a 25 percent discount on membership fees.

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