We are so pleased to report that after much campaigning, the upcoming National Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey will also include Eating Disorders. A research team based at the University of Leicester, led by Traolach (Terry) Brugha, (Professor of Psychiatry at University of Leicester and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust), together with NatCen Social Research, will be undertaking the 2022 National Survey of Health and Wellbeing, the fifth survey of its kind.
As part of this, they have secured additional funding from the Department of Health to assess for eating disorders in both the general adult community population as well as adults utilising NHS eating disorder services (adults being defined as individuals 16 years or older). This is a great opportunity to realise data regarding eating disorders in the UK population, which is crucial to be able to work towards policy change and improve treatment accessibility for better outcomes for all those affected by eating disorders.
The eating disorder research will involve use of the Eating Disorder interview within version 3 of the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, developed by World Health Organisation. The lead developer for this interview was Dr Carol Kan, Consultant Psychiatrist in Eating Disorders. The other team members are Sam Tromans (Associate Professor of Psychiatry at University of Leicester and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust) and Zoe Morgan (Research Associate at University of Leicester).
They wish to conduct Patient and Public Involvement sessions related to this interview on the 4th and 5th April 2022 with both virtual and in-person sessions arranged – and can be flexible with timings for those that these days do not work for. They would like to invite any adult patients within eating disorders services, as well as their carers to participate in this survey.
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) session attendees will be reimbursed for their time, as well as for their communication costs (for virtual sessions) and a certain amount for travel costs (for in-person sessions, held at the George Davies Centre, University of Leicester). They are looking for as diverse a group of patients as possible, with respect to gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, religion, and age (though all need to be at least 16 years of age).
If you are kindly willing to participate, please contact Zoe (zoe.morgan9@nhs.net) AND Sam (samuel.tromans@nhs.net) via email, either to request further information or to request allocation to one of the sessions.
This is a wonderful opportunity to get the eating disorders lived experience voice involved in working towards better outcomes for all those affected by eating disorders here in the UK.
Suzanne Baker and Helen Missen (F.E.A.S.T. Representatives, UK)