Eating Disorder Awareness and You Can Care Week

Raising Awareness – 25^th February to 1^st March – Eating Disorder Awareness and You Can Care Week

Emery Johnson Astills are keen to promote and support many issues and raise awareness of issues within the public eye. This week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week and also You Can Care week.

Eating Disorders are something not many people speak about but are very common. 1.6 million people in the UK are suffering with an eating disorder.

When you think of eating disorders most people think of anorexia but there is also bulimia and binge eating as well as others. They do not all mean starving yourself. Many include eating to excess and making yourself sick or only eating on certain days but eating to excess. 10% of those with an eating disorder suffer with anorexia. 40% of those with an eating disorder suffer from bulimia.

Once you have been diagnosed with an eating disorder it is difficult to fight it. Many people will fight it and manage to keep it under control but it will never fully go away. It is more on a disorder effecting your thinking and this is why it is so difficult to get rid of it forever. There are many places that offer assistance to people with eating disorders and help them with treatment so they can carry on to live as normal a life as possible.

You can care week – raising awareness of those caring for relatives, mainly the elderly. This is something many people will do and not even realise as they think they are simply caring for a family member. 1 in every 8 adults is a caregiver for an elderly member of their family with 58% of carers being female compared to 42% male carers.

Being a carer can have a significant impact on those offering the care with 72% of carers having mental health issues due to being carers. This won’t stop people though! It is anticipated that by 2037 there will be over 9 million people offering care to elderly relatives each year!

Family carers save the government nearly £6.8million a year! That is an amazing amount of money that deserves recognition.

There are many companies and agencies out there to help people who care for elderly relatives to provide respite or just a helping hand when things get tough.

To find out more about these areas look out for the hashtag #youcancare. Alternatively, have a look at some of the websites dedicated to these areas for more information.

At Emery Johnson Astills, staff health and wellbeing is very important. There are designated trained staff members who can provide confidential assistance to staff who may be affected by the issues above or any other issues.