A School Nurse Tool Kit - Eating Disorders Can Affect Anybody

In this weeks episode, Han is joined by Hope Virgo, Sharon White OBE and Suzanne Samaka. Hope Virgo is an award-winning mental health campaigner who has been involved in several campaigns and projects to improve patients' support for eating disorders (EDs). Sharon is the co-chair of the school nurses international, and the CEO of the School and Public Health Nurses Association (SAPHNA), where she is a passionate advocate for children, young people, and their families. Suzanne Samaka is a mental health campaigner and the founder of the Honesty About Editing Campaign which supports youth mental health against the challenges of low self-esteem and negative body image caused by edited content on social media.

On 17th October, MPs and campaigners will come together to launch the first ever eating disorder manifesto and a toolkit for school nurses empowering them to have the right conversations. EDs are not new illnesses, but they have risen increasingly since the pandemic and delays have led to chronic long-term illness and loss of life. Campaigners have acknowledged we are no longer hiding behind the pandemic and ensure no one is dying from an ED in 2022.

This campaign is working to remove the stigma, shame, guilt, and misunderstanding that surrounds these illnesses, ensuring timely access to specialist support is provided to everyone, and to provide adequate funding to meet the demand required of ED services. everybody should have timely access to specialist services.

The School Nursing Toolkit named "eating disorders can affect anybody" has been produced to support children, young people, and their families through the provision of the latest evidence, research, and user-informed best practice guidance. This will allow school nurses to work with families, schools, and peers to support mental health in and out of education.

In this weeks episode, we discuss:

The ED manifesto, timely treatment, and the importance of speaking about EDs in all situations, not just schools.
How the toolkit aims to support school nurses.
The importance of involving carers, parents, teachers, school nurses, and others experiences and needs for the resource to be effective and useful.
A school nurse's role is identifying and supporting the child, young person, and families with an ED.
How to meet the demands of children and young people with the current workforce, and how this project will support mental health.
How social media and digital technologies are used to come alongside children and young people to support their mental health.
Teaching children and young people about mental health in schools.
Prospects and plans for mental health support in children and young people.
Working together as a team of mental health professionals, nurses, teachers, and families, with an asset-based, patient-centred approach in order to support the individual.
The hope for translating these resources into tools available for adults and the workplace.