Hansard

I, too, commend Emma Harper for bringing this vitally important topic to the chamber, especially during what is, as we have heard, eating disorders awareness week.

As we have already heard, the number people living with eating disorders in the UK is more than 1.25 million. It is a mental health crisis that disproportionately affects our young people, women and girls.

Eating disorders respect no boundaries and pay no heed to status or position. Diana, the late Princess of Wales, spoke publicly in 1994 about the issues and about her battles with bulimia and self-mutilation. She said:

“I am certain the ultimate solution lies within the individual. But, with the help and patient nurturing given by professionals, family and friends, people suffering eating disorders can find a better way of coping with their lives.”

As we all know, Princess Diana fought to increase understanding about bulimia and helped to raise public awareness of eating disorders.

The figure that I referred to is just an estimate, as diagnosis is often delayed or missed entirely. As we have heard, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. The start of treatment takes an average of three and a half years from the onset of an eating disorder. That is often due to problems with identification but also because of delays in referral and long waiting times in an already underresourced and overburdened NHS.

All too often, the family and friends of people with eating disorders bear the brunt, offering valuable help to aid recovery but also taking on high levels of psychological distress and their own emotional weight. They, too, are in need of help and support so that they can be fully empowered to help their loved one through the crisis. That is echoed in the theme of this year’s eating disorders awareness week.

I welcome the people in the gallery from the charity, Beat, who do outstanding work to support all those affected, as well as raising awareness and looking at better ways to support friends and family members. The support of friends, families and neighbours is key in enabling someone to overcome an eating disorder, but that should not come at the cost of the supporter’s mental health.

Beat’s “Best practice guidance in the engagement and empowerment of families and carers affected by eating disorders” is a rallying call to arms for healthcare professionals, with eight steps for them to adopt in order to best support everyone involved. I am proud to have signed up and pledged my support to stand with Beat this week, to call for the best care, support and information for people with eating disorders and their friends and family.

As I mentioned, the gap between the onset of an eating disorder and the start of treatment is often too long and can impede recovery, as early support is highly beneficial for long-term recovery.

According to Beat,

“The Scottish 10 Year Mental Health Strategy details a commitment to delivering on the principle of ‘ask once, get help fast’. Yet this is far from a reality for many people in Scotland with an eating disorder.”

Even once a diagnosis has been given, the care that a patient receives is down to a postcode lottery. A freedom of information request that Beat submitted just last year showed that one NHS health board does not have an adult eating disorder service, one only provides day-patient services, and one can only treat those with severe anorexia nervosa. That situation is inevitable, given that so little time and so few resources are spent on training medical staff on the issue. One in five medical schools do not provide any training at all, and in those that do, an average of only 1.8 hours is spent teaching about the issue.

This national eating disorders awareness week, let us join together in supporting the call for better care for people with eating disorders and for the family, friends and carers around them, who are also affected, and let us say that, no matter where they are on their road to recovery, we support them.