Eating Disorders HIT 2023-24 

Sharing evidence to improve practice

Gender and eating disorders was the theme for the Eating Disorders HIT’s annual research conference, attended online by 170 healthcare professionals, researchers and members of the public. Topics presented included positive body image in men, disordered eating in Muslim men and the trans/non-binary perspective. Clinicians who attended said the content had encouraged them to think about creating inclusive environments and clinical assessments.

The research conference series is enabling the HIT to build a bank of resources for ED researchers and practitioners alike.

Driving improvement

A cross-HIT meeting with the Healthy Weight HIT identified that some guidance around maintaining a healthy weight could lead to restrictive eating. This has led to a collaborative cross-HIT project to improve the language used in the NHS Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator.

Providing training and education

HIT co-director Sanni Norweg has been implementing “The Body Project”, an early intervention for young people to reduce body dissatisfaction. This has included leading training of healthcare professionals in schools’ mental health support teams.

Involving people with lived experience

A stakeholder event in collaboration with the BNSSG community Eating Disorders Steering Group was held to coincide with Eating Disorders Awareness Week.  Attended by experts by experience, local clinicians and researchers, the event highlighted results of the transformation programme within the local STEPS service, which has reduced waiting lists and introduced a new rapid response service for 19–25-year-olds presenting for the first time.  Our charity partners SWEDA and research collaborators at UWE also shared their recent activity and development work.

Working in collaboration with Veronika Rysinova, a doctoral student from UWE, the HIT carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Eating Disorder Support App, in supporting individuals with lived experience, supporters and healthcare professionals. User perspectives, preferences, and recommendations regarding the app’s impact, usability, and effectiveness have been gathered (via a survey and stakeholder interviews), with the report due out shortly.

Carolyn Trippick has been appointed as peer co director for the HIT, to advocate for the lived experience voice to be heard in equal and reciprocal partnership with other stakeholders. Carolyn leads our communications for HIT events, including its research conference and stakeholder events. The HIT’s social media presence continues to grow, as well as the mailing list.

Focus groups involving and engaging people from under-represented groups who have experienced disordered eating were carried out in April 2024.  The data shaped the design of a £300k NIHR grant application which will be submitted in the summer, to build a regional community champion network to enable us to provide culturally appropriate support to members of these groups.

Funding enabled in 2023-24

The HIT helped secure £1775 in 2023-24 to fund the focus group activity above; an internal report summarizing the results of this PPI work will be available shortly.