Eating Disorders: Anyone can be affected but anyone can be part of the change

Posted by Devon Partnership Trust in News on 24th February, 2025

The theme for this year’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which runs from Monday 24 February to Sunday 2 March, is ‘anyone’. Siobhán Lehnert, Psychological Therapist with the Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS) shares her story.

"This theme got me thinking about the diversity of people who can be affected by disordered eating but also how much, anyone within our society can challenge the narrative. At the age of just 1 year old, my daughter was diagnosed with idiopathic ketotic hypoglycaemia; a rare metabolic condition. To prevent starvation ketoacidosis, missing meals was not an option and we were provided with an emergency regime to follow should she not be able to eat regularly.

"Understandably, this health condition provoked a lot of anxiety for other caregivers who supported her at this young age. This was confirmed during handovers, where my daughter was present, which only discussed her daily relationship with food and dismissed other aspects of her day. It highlighted the many commonly held beliefs and actions that our culture continues to perpetuate when it comes to our relationship with food and body.

"These comments and actions were certainly not the fault of individual caregivers who have worked tirelessly to provide the additional care that my daughter needed but the influence of a culture which falsely promises a better life, health and morality in exchange for resolute dedication; diet culture. Unfortunately, being subjected to diet culture systems can be damaging to anyone and can contribute to long lasting difficulties including low self-worth, shame and the development of disordered eating behaviours. The powerful nature of diet culture means that we may be unknowingly perpetuating this system whilst being blind to the affect it is having on a colleague, a family member or a friend.

"To combat this, I passionately take actions to increase awareness and educate those who are ready to hear and challenge these systems. The most significant programme which I professionally deliver to challenge diet culture is ‘The Body Project’. The Body Project is a preventative group programme, evaluating diet culture and supporting the development of healthy body image in young people. In November 2024, I facilitated a training event whereby colleagues from CEDS, TALKWORKS, Core Teams and Devon Mental Health Alliance came together to learn about ‘The Body Project’.

"The training was well received with 100% of the 10 trainees, rating it as extremely or very useful to their current job. All participants also reported that they felt reasonably or very confident to integrate aspects of ‘The Body Project’ into their job when they returned to their place of work. The feedback was positive with comments including;

“It allowed me to see the potentially significant impact [the group] could have as I saw the impact of the tasks on myself”

“You don’t think about the costs of appearance ideals naturally so it was a real reflective process”

"In the same way anyone can be affected by diet culture, anyone can be a part of the change to challenge it. The first step is to become more aware – the thing about diet culture is once you see it, you can’t un-see it! For Eating Disorder Awareness Week, I invite you and/or your teams to observe how prominent diet culture is present in your daily life. For instance, how often do you overhear conversations relating to dieting, how often do you hear about people not feeling confident in their body, how often do you see weight loss advertisements, how often do you see/hear the shape of someone’s body being criticised."

If there are any questions relating to diet culture or you would like to know more about The Body Project, please contact Siobhan Lehnert, Psychological Therapist, CEDS on siobhan.lehnert@nhs.net. 

How can I access support for an eating disorder through the NHS?

If you think that you may have an eating disorder, it’s important to book an appointment with your GP as soon as possible. It can be really difficult to do this on your own, so ask a friend or family member to accompany you if you would like some additional support. In your appointment, your GP is likely to ask you some questions to understand more about the difficulties that you are experiencing. They may signpost you to support or they may make a referral, on your behalf, to a service that is best placed to help.

Devon Partnership NHS Trust can provide advice, support and treatment for people experiencing an eating disorder, once a referral has been received.

Our Community Eating Disorder service can assess people with an eating disorder to establish the most suitable treatment option for the individual. They can also provide advice and signposting for professionals who are referring a patient. The Haldon, our specialist eating disorder service, can help adults (age 18+) experiencing a severe eating disorder. Treatment can be provided on a residential basis if required, at Wonford House, as part of a longer term care plan. A referral is required to access both the Community Eating Disorder service and The Haldon.

TALKWORKS, our NHS talking therapies service, offers support to adults (age 18+, living in Devon, outside Plymouth) with managing symptoms of bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. You can self-refer to TALKWORKS without needing to see a GP by completing their online self-referral form, or by calling the team on 0300 555 3344.

Other organisations that can help

• BEAT can help with a range of eating disorders. The charity has a free helpline for people of all ages, as well as a range of online resources and support groups
• Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders (F.E.A.S.T) helps families of people with an eating disorder. They offer peer support, educational resources and online support forums.