Services: Eating Disorders

We offer several services for unpaid carers of both adults and children/young persons with an eating disorder.

Individual Advocacy

We offer an individual advocacy service specifically for those caring for someone with an eating disorder.

Advocacy is about having somebody to help you be heard and help represent your needs and views as effectively as possible. Advocates will arrange to meet with you and give you the opportunity to talk through issues that are concerning you. They will talk through options and choices and discuss what the outcomes may be, and can support you to write letters, prepare for and attend meetings and tribunals or make phone calls.

Advocates can represent your views if you feel unable to this yourself. They do not tell you what to do, they are there to support you in your choices and decisions and can lend weight to your views. Advocates will support people in dealing with specific issues and work with them to get the issue resolved; they are there to support you and only you.

For more information, please visit our Individual Advocacy page

Peer Groups

The peer groups we run offer those who are carers for individuals with an eating disorder to meet one another to share lived experiences, feelings, and offer emotional and practical support.

We currently facilitate community-based peer support groups based in Edinburgh (covering areas of East, West, and Midlothian as well). This peer group typically meets in our offices at 14 Links Place, EH6 7EZ.

We also hold a peer group based at the Regional Eating Disorders Unit at St John’s Hospital in Livingston for carers of inpatients and recently discharged patients for up to one year.

More recently, we have started running a peer group for carers and parents of children and young persons with an eating disorder. We have one community-based support group based in Edinburgh at 14 Links Place, EH6 7EZ. We also hold a peer group based at the Tipperlinn Young People's Unit at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

1:1 Peer Support

We offer 1:1 peer support via our volunteers – individuals who have lived experience caring for an individual with an eating disorder can meet with you to provide emotional support, share experiences and advice, and provide a non-judgemental space.

For more information on eating disorder service, please contact info@edinburghcarerscouncil.co.uk or by phone at 0131 322 8480.

Other local organisations and resources

BEAT Peer Support and Online Development for Carers (POD) | beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/support-someone-else/pod-e-learning-platform/

POD (Peer support and Online Development) is Beat’s online carer community designed to provide people supporting someone with an eating disorder with a space to learn, share experiences and find support.

CarED | caredscotland.co.uk/

This package is currently designed for parents and carers of young people (aged up to 25) in Scotland who have recently received a diagnosis of an eating disorder and are about to or have just started treatment. (Can still be potentially useful for carers who have a loved one with a long-suffering eating disorder)

SupportED | supportedscotland.org/

A community charity that offers regular support groups for those with eating disorders (18+, any gender) and their carers (separate groups). The groups are confidential, informal, friendly and always respect privacy.