Professionals
Eating disorders affect people of all ages and without the right support and intervention, they can develop into life-threatening illnesses. At EDA we regularly receive enquiries from professionals requesting general information on eating disorders and specific guidance on how to best support a person struggling. Whether you're a GP or medical professional, a teacher, HR or fitness professional, we provide tailored information, resources and training.
Click on the pages to the left for information relevant to your profession, and to understand more about the causes, signs and symptoms of eating disorders. We also cover practical strategies on how to offer someone you may come across through your work the right support.
EDA's Professional Survey into Primary Healthcare
The need for additional eating disorders specific training and resources for professionals was highlighted by our survey in partnership with the Royal College of
General Practitioners (RCGP).
Here's a snapshot of what we discovered:
- The vast majority of patients (88%) say no advice was available to their support network.
- There’s also concern that a third (33%) of respondents say no offer was made to monitor their physical health.
- Over half of patients (51%) spent less than 10 minutes with their GP during their initial consultation.
- More than half (55%) had to go back multiple times before getting a referral.
- Once they’d been referred, 48% had to wait over a month before their treatment started
In response to the findings, EDA launched the first online training course for GPs and primary healthcare professionals. EDA's training will now include medical information at a level beyond CPD accreditation. This will be applied to our education training programme, to reach medical staff and healthcare teams within schools, colleges and universities. For details on this new course or our training, please contact us here.
Research was carried out by Vision Critical on behalf of EDA: Eating Disorder Advice and cannot be reproduced without permission in writing. For the full survey results, please contact us at campaign@eatingdisordersadvice.co.uk.