A mixture of excitement and sorrow

Excitement to see that my local NHS has seen the light, so to speak, and appears to be pioneering FBT (Family  Based Treatment) for adolescents with eating disorders in England. Sorrow because we missed out on this fantastic opportunity. But that's water under the bridge; nothing can be done to change the past. However, hopefully, the future in Leeds looks BRILLIANT. Here is the email I've just fired off to the person in charge:

Dear Dr XXXXXX

I’m not sure if you’re the right person for me to contact about the following and if not I would be grateful if you could forward it on.

My son was treated by CAMHS in Leeds north-east between 2010 and 2012, for anorexia nervosa. Since then I’ve become an advocate for evidence-based treatment for eating disorders in adolescence, and especially in males.

I’m well known within the global F.E.A.S.T. community (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders), blog about the subject of boys with eating disorders and have written a couple of books. I also speak regularly at carers' conferences (e.g. at the Maudsley in London); I will be speaking at a carers’ conference in Edinburgh in February.

I’ve been involved in conferences where Prof James Lock has spoken about FBT being implemented across Scotland and, of course, was eager to see the same kind of thing happening in England.

The purpose of this email is because I was looking around the Internet and came across the document “Leeds Local Transformation Plan for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being, November 2015” and was especially drawn to section 8 “A Community Eating Disorder Service for Children and Young People” where it states that plans are in place to make Leeds “one of the first areas in the UK to adopt Family Based Treatment (FBT) as the main treatment modality for Anorexia Nervosa”.

With my son having received treatment for his eating disorder in Leeds, I was really excited to see this development – and I wondered whether it would be at all possible to meet with you (or if not you, someone else who is involved in implementing FBT across Leeds) for 20 minutes or so to talk about what Leeds is proposing.

If possible I would like to do this before I go to Edinburgh at the end of February because I would like to mention it at the end of my talk. The Edinburgh conference is focusing on males with eating disorders and I’m there to talk about my son’s experience with anorexia and his journey through to recovery.

I would love to talk about how Leeds is following in the footsteps of what I understand is going on in parts (all?) of Scotland at the moment and talk about how thrilled I am to see this development in Leeds.

I look forward to hopefully meeting with you soon.

Many thanks,