Northamptonshire Healthwatch receives national praise & award for eating disorders report

Healthwatch Northamptonshire, which is supported by the University of Northampton, has been praised for a report about eating disorders in children.

Healthwatch Northamptonshire held its annual meeting earlier this week and Jane Mordue, the Chair of the organisation, gave a speech about the role of Healthwatch England and how it supports local Healthwatch to collate information about health and social care on a countrywide basis.

Jane commended the report, which was produced after a survey of schoolchildren across the county about their knowledge and awareness of eating disorders. The report has gone on to win the ‘Inspiring Project Award’ as part of the British Youth Councils 2017 Youth on Board Awards.

They were asked a series of questions about whether they or someone they knew had an eating disorder, where they would go for help if they had one and what they knew about support services.

Key findings were:

• One third (31%) of the respondents said they knew someone with an eating disorder
• More girls (84%) said they knew what an eating disorder was than boys (65%)
• Over a third (39%) had not heard of any of a list of local services that could help them

Key recommendations include putting more resources into raising awareness of eating disorders and help available and distributing more information through schools.

Commenting on the local Healthwatch, Jane said: “It was great to hear about all Healthwatch Northamptonshire’s work, especially the award winning project about eating disorders in the young.

“There are a lot of talented people at Northamptonshire who may have retired but have the right energy and values to continue help this Healthwatch to further successes”.

Healthwatch works to help local people get the best out of their local health and social care services by representing their views and feedback at a local and national level, with the ultimate aim being to influence how they are delivered.

See their website for more information about Healthwatch Northamptonshire.