Better help for eating disorders in Bath

3 May 2019, 16:10 | Updated: 3 May 2019, 16:16

A unique drop-in service helping people with eating disorders in Bath has been hailed as a success.

This hub is run by Anorexia and Bulimia Care and is open at Widcombe Social Club from 9.30am to 5pm every Thursday, staffed by a team with personal experience of recovery, as well as caring for someone in recovery.

The hub is open to anyone affected by an eating disorder, or anyone who is concerned about a friend, colleague or family member and also offers support and outreach to local schools, colleges and universities.

It opened in January and organisers say it has been busy, most significantly because it is credited with being the first service in the UK to offer free, weekly, all-day drop ins for people, outside of the NHS.

CEO of Anorexia and Bulimia Care Jane Smith said: "The NHS services are overstretched, there are long waiting times and the treatment can be short lived so you can understand with a long recovery journey the NHS is only able to help people for a short time.

"People have come from as far afield as London, Herefordshire and Wales actually, as well as Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset. So we can see this would be an amazing thing to roll out across the UK.

"We're very grateful for the funding from St John's Foundation to be able to do this for two years. We've got half the funding to open one in Manchester but we do need people to get behind this initiative and help us financially so we can open more." 

You can read more about Anorexia and Bulimia Care, eating disorders and the help available here.