It’s been a busy few weeks here at Beat! We’ve announced the retirement of our Chief Executive, launched our new report and had a feature in the Sun. We thought we’d give you a round-up of all the times we’ve been mentioned in the media recently, and some more information as well:
Our wonderful National Lead for Scotland Alex Jones wrote an op-ed for the Sun. He wrote about on how calls to our helpline from or on behalf of Scottish 18-22 year olds have doubled and why starting university can be a challenging time for those experiencing an eating disorder. You can read it on the Scottish Sun website.
Our new report, 'There's no place like home: The case for intensive community and day treatments for eating disorders', launched at the end of October – you can read about our report here. Our research showed that intensive community and day treatments are just as effective as inpatient treatment, are less disruptive to patients and families and are far cheaper than inpatient care – yet just 10 out of 67 (15%) NHS areas provide the recommended level of care for both children and adults.
In Northern Ireland, no areas provide the recommended level of treatment for eating disorders. Because of this, 26 people had to travel outside the country for treatment between 2017/18 to 2021/22. Our representatives were interviewed on U105 and BBC Radio Foyle, while we had online and print coverage in The Irish News, The Belfast Telegraph, Belfast Live and Sunday World.
In Wales, only one Welsh health board provides the recommended level of treatment. This means that people living with eating have been forced to attend treatment outside the country, costing the NHS millions. You can read all about it in this Nation.Cymru article or watch it featured on ITV Wales.
Our Chief Executive Andrew Radford has retired after nine years at Beat, having helped steer us through Covid and financial challenges that affected the whole charity sector post-pandemic.
We also welcomed our Interim Chief Executive Robin Hepburn, who stepped down from his position on Beat’s Board of Trustees to take the position. He brings with him a wealth of business experience from his successful career in the City of London. You can read our blog article about it here or the coverage we got on the Third Sector website.