Empowering families affected by eating disorders

The UK eating disorder charity, Beat, has developed guidance urging better support for families and carers of individuals living with an eating disorder. Beat highlights how current NICE guidelines recommend families and carers should be as informed as possible by professionals/services regarding their loved one’s diagnosis, and proposed treatment plan. This is because, if informed and involved, families and carers can often positively impact an individual’s recovery. However, all too often, family members and carers report feeling ill-informed and unsupported with regards to their loved one’s illness. This in turn may lead to significant consequences for family members and carers, including high levels of emotional distress.

As such, Beat has set out a series of ‘best practice’ standards for adoption by all healthcare services/professionals offering eating disorder treatment.

These include:

• Services prioritising involvement of families and carers as soon as an individual starts treatment, in line with what may be helpful for the individual affected.

• Services ensuring families and carers receive useful, and comprehensive, information regarding eating disorders, and their loved one’s expected treatment plan, again in line with what may be helpful for the individual affected.

• Services ensuring families and carers become ‘skilled’ in approaches that support their loved one’s recovery, e.g. approaches to eating that may support the individual with change.

• Services ensuring families and carers are offered assessment of, and support for, their own wellbeing.

We here at The London Centre very much welcome Beat’s drive for better support and information for families and carers of those affected by an eating disorder. Our service has long valued and offered support for families and carers, and our team members have a range of skills that may support anyone affected by the experience of living with an eating disorder.

If someone you care about is living with an eating disorder, and you feel you may benefit from further information and support at this time, then please do contact us to discuss further.

 A link to the full list of standards outlined by Beat can be found here.