Publish date: 1 March 2022
This Eating Disorder Awareness Week (Monday 28 February to Sunday 6 March), West London NHS Trust is highlighting the important work to support people living with eating disorders.
Tracey Collins is a Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist working for West London CAMHS Eating Disorder Service. It's a tri-borough service covering Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow.
The main eating disorders her team treat people for are anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Tracey explained the reasons why a young person may develop an eating disorder. She said: "There are a lot of different factors involved in the development of an eating disorder including genetics and environmental factors.
"I like to say that with eating disorders, young people's buckets are too full, there is usually intention to restrict and exercise to be healthy, and various stressors happen and factors such as perfectionism increase their vulnerability to developing one.
"All these factors add up. With all the stress adding up, their buckets overflow and they start to be driven by thoughts to restrict. So anything can cause an eating disorder but nobody is to blame."
But Tracey and her team say it's possible for anyone to recover from an eating disorder. She said: "We will always hold hope that they can recover. From my experience, if we hold hope for them, they may find the motivation and strength to recover."
She said today's world of social media and the government's approach to tackling obesity can have a negative impact on young people.
She explained: "A lot of young people have been told they are overweight using BMI, but we know it's not really accurate, and it can draw attention to something that was not a concern until it was raised."
Tracey said one of the biggest myths is that the Trust doesn't see young people, when in fact they've doubled in referrals.
She explained: "We screen for physical health risks with eating disorders and we have urgent assessment slots every week as well as our routine assessments.
"We have doubled in referrals but we know eating disorders can lead to death, so we will make sure we see who we need to see urgently."
Tracey explained some of the methods used by the team to help treat young people with an eating disorder.
She said: "We often use family therapy as the main treatment for eating disorders, however, we base the treatment on the formulation of the eating difficulty and the factors involved in the development along with the diagnosis given.
"So sometimes, we might think psychotherapy is useful, we often highlight the importance of weight restoration and we therefore usually add in individual therapy later on in treatment.
"As nurses in the eating disorder team, we can have many different roles with being involved in the care and treatment for young people and families, and we're proud to do individual therapy, family therapy and physical health monitoring.
"We're all trained in various therapeutic approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), as well as family therapy for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa."
In terms of raising awareness about eating disorders, there's still a lot of work to be done.
Tracey said: "I think young people receiving support that they need prior to it becoming an eating disorder is important.
"Schools can be key in promoting positive mental health and talking about body positivity.
"I would say being kind to one another is really important too. I think we have some work to do with the sporting industry. We see a lot of young people who have been competitive athletes where there is either bullying and body shaming, and it's not just from fellow athletes.
"As a team we are happy to provide training to schools, GPs, and other professionals. We really are keen to educate."
You can find out more about the CAMHS Eating Disorder Service here.
