Somerset and Wessex Eating Disorders Association "Serving those affected by eating disorders" Strode House, 10 Leigh Road, Street, Somerset, England, UK

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New Year Issue 2003 New Year Issue 2003 Happy New Year to you all. Its that time of year again to wrap up warm and make New Year resolutions we hope we can keep. This year looks set to get off to a good start with new things happening in SEDA and we are looking forward to the conference in February (see inside for more details) We hope you all have been able to enjoy this festive season and look forward to the New Year ahead. Best wishes from Sandra.   Tel: 01458 448600 for the helpline 01458 448611 for admin calls only SEDA, Strode House, 10 Leigh Road, Street, BA16 0HA E-mails: seda@ukonline.co.uk helpbyletter@i12.com Web site: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/seda/index.htm Having just joined the Somerset Partnership NHS and Social Care Trust as a clinical nurse specialist for eating disorders, I was delighted to be asked by SEDA to write an introduction for the bulletin. It has been a wrench for my family and especially my three boys who have had to move schools and become distant from close friends, but we moved West because we’ve always wanted to. My wife Sarah, being a Dorset girl (Sherborne), encouraged us to push a little harder in looking to live and work in this area. We spent many years living just outside Cambridge, making us wonder what those large green mounds were called when we arrived. "Hills", we were told. Cambridge is flatter than the levels, I promise! I qualified as a general nurse (SRN in those days - now RGN) in 1980 in Stevenage. After working as a staff nurse in many areas, including Coronary Care, A&E and GU Medicine. I then decided to leave nursing to go to college. After leaving college, I moved to mental health nursing and qualified as an RMN in 1985 and have been working in various areas since. Most recently I was co-manager of the Drug and Alcohol service working also as cognitive therapist in the Cambridge in and out patient service for adolescents with eating disorders. Over the years, I have concentrated mainly on psychotherapy, having completed, (amongst other courses), the Cognitive Therapy in Oxford course in 1994. It was in 1994 that I became accredited with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) and registered as a psychotherapist with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). Apart from NHS work, I also had a private cognitive therapy practice in Cambridge. Claims to fame? Well, I appeared on BBC2 - Jools Holland’s show with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, (ex-Led Zeppelin) and play various instruments with a folk / rock / modern jazz outfit "Shave the Monkey". We work all over the UK and Europe with many albums and TV and Radio appearances behind us, as well as sharing stages with the rich and famous! It is a pleasure to be here and living in Butleigh and a sign of being new is that I still love the view of the Tor driving to work, and to see the sea in work time, well........! The team and SEDA have made us all very welcome. I am hoping to develop the various treatments and support systems with the Trust and in partnership with SEDA (a very valuable resource - rare I think, in the UK). The task is enormous and I intend continuing to hold a case-load of clients. However, part of our job, is also to encourage a larger network approach. The Team (Alex, Joy myself and Tricia) cannot take on everyone with an eating disorder in Somerset, but we can help develop a team approach with the resources available to the community. We move to our Glastonbury High Street office soon, and will let everyone know contact details. For those I have met, a big thank you for helping me settle. I very much look forward to meeting and working with everyone. It takes a while for names to lodge in my brain so please bear with me! DUNCAN CHURCHILL-MOSS Creative Arts Therapy Group Starting January 21st 2003. The group will meet weekly on a Tuesday Morning for 10 sessions, and will be run by our Community Support Workers Anita Worcester (Drama Therapist) and Dinah Mason (Art Therapist). You don't need to be ‘artistic’ or ‘creative’ just willing to explore some of your feelings and situations. The group will offer support to do this, and to look at fears of change and recovery. This will be a closed group for people :- suffering a wide range of eating disorders managing day to day life in the community at the point of wanting to work with the emotional issues underlying their eating patterns If you are interested, places are still available please contact the helpline as soon as possible for more information and to get your application form. Call the helpline on 01458 448600 "I’M A STUDENT GET ME OUT OF HERE"! Currently a student at Bridgwater College I got offered to go to SEDA for work experience, with advice, health and safety briefings and a note saying ‘the staff are mad you should fit in well’ on board it was time for me to see for myself. By the second day it was well there's no stopping me now and by the end of the week I had it cracked. My jobs included laminating, a pile of photocopying (this I wouldn't have minded so much if the photocopier didn't predict my every move before I got the chance to programme it!!) along with phone and coffee duty, computer work and much more. The staff are friendly and know how to strut their stuff, they are all a great bundle of laughs. On a serious note this is a place where confidentiality comes first and the work these people do should be recognised. I have had the fortunate task to be working along side people who work hard at achieving making a difference. Thank you for the experience and goodluck with future projects. E.G. SEDA~Low Cost Counselling Service. If you are interested in having some counselling or would like more information please contact the helpline, who will send you our information leaflet and an application form. £15 for initial interview £10 for further sessions. Eating Disorders Awareness Week Conference   Wednesday 5th February 2003 at The Cleve Hotel, Wellington, Somerset. Theme: The hidden cost of eating disorders 9.30am ~ 4.30pm The plan for the day is to have speakers in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. Please see enclosed booking form to make your choices. Closing date for bookings 28th January. All forms to be returned to SEDA. We will endeavour to accommodate your first choice of workshop, but it will be on a first come first served basis. Supported Self-Help Programme 2003/04 Starting in March 2003   SSH is our way of offering support over a 15 - 18 month period for anyone willing to take part in group and 1-1 activities. We will look at issues including self esteem, relationships, setting and achieving life goals, motivation, and understanding and managing a healthy food / exercise lifestyle. You can chose to just sign up for the first block of sessions on self esteem without committing to the whole programme. As well as group sessions (short blocks with breaks between topics) you will work at your own pace on your chosen areas supported by a SEDA trained volunteer. A work book will be provided, and you can also use material from a range of self-help books and manuals. We are ‘recruiting now for the first group, which will be starting in March, meeting in Wincanton. Provisionally we have set this as a daytime group, but if there is a need for an evening group we will arrange that. Contact the helpline and leave your name and address, we will then send you a leaflet and an application form, and make an arrangement to meet with you to talk further. The group will be facilitated by Tricia, SEDA’s Manager, and Lyn Southway who is acting as development worker for this project. [We have some funding to support the programme so you may be eligible for a free place - any costs payable could be spread out over a two year period.] RESEARCH PROJECT OPPORTUNITY Rudi Dallos, Plymouth University, would like to hear from any family with experience of a member having anorexia. Preferably the person would be 19-25, and parents and a sister or brother would also take part by being interviewed. Previous studies have often ignored farthers and siblings, and this work offers the opportunity to talk about their experience. For an information leaflet contact Rudi Dallos on 01752 233161. Rudi will also talk through the details by telephone so you get a clear picture of what the work entails before any interviews are set up. Joint working with The Somerset Partnership (NHS) Trust NHS Somerset Eating Disorders Service Team ~ SEDA   The Team are still waiting to go to offices in Glastonbury. They hope to move in very soon, meanwhile you can contact them through SEDA. Once the move is completed we will be able to pass you on directly to Joy, Alex and Duncan who will be based there. Tricia will continue to work with them two days a week. The team are currently working on new strategies, and a full report will be in the Spring bulletin. SEDA PENPAL SCHEME. Would you like to write to someone in a similar situation to yourself, or with similar interests? Being a Pen-Pal gives you the opportunity to discuss ideas, share thoughts and feelings and give and receive support in your struggle with Eating Disorders. If you would like to be involved in SEDA’s Pen-Pal Scheme, you will need to register with us. To do this you can write into SEDA, call the helpline or download the form from our web site. Once we have received and accepted your completed form you will be allocated a SEDA box number which you will need to include on the outside of all your Pen-Pal letters. You will receive confirmation of your box number and the information you supplied about yourself will be placed in the SEDA Bulletin and the Pen-Pal updates and where requested on the Web Site. Replies will be sent on to you unopened. We would encourage you to reply to any letter received within a fortnight whenever possible. SEDA House Update The house is now ready, and people are moving in. There is still a place available. If you are recovering from an eating disorder and need time to continue that progress while learning lifeskills and to manage finances, and your home, as steps towards living independently this could be right for you. We are asking anyone interested in being a tenant with us to make contact now. Estelle Davenport starts as House Manager from 13th Jan and can be contacted through SEDA,she will be able to tell you more about the support available and also show you the house. Tenants have secure housing rights through Mendip Housing Association and the housing costs and support cost are met through housing benefit. In addition we would help you to get involved with Health Education and social activities depending on what you would like to do. When you are ready to move on we can help you to find the right accommodation at that time. We hope this will offer a real opportunity for up to three people to have the backup they need to start an exiting new era in their lives. Help still needed with a research project:   Eating Disorders & Spirituality Have you had experience of an eating disorder? Have you been involved in a faith community at all? If so, I’d be really interested to hear from you. I am currently doing a research project looking at the spiritual and pastoral issues around eating disorders, particularly anorexia and bulimia in relation to Christianity. My name’s Claire. I’ve had anorexia myself and it’s out of that experience that I am doing this research. I am currently training to be a priest in the Church of England, at Queen’s College, Birmingham, and the aim of my research is to improve the practice of pastoral and spiritual care for people with eating disorders. If you feel able to help me, please contact me via SEDA. I will send you a questionnaire in the first instance to help you think through some of the issues. If you feel able, do complete and return to me, I will then contact you to arrange a time to meet with you to chat about your experience. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you. Claire. (Please call the helpline or drop SEDA a line with your name, address and phone number, which we will then pass on to Claire.) SEDA DROP-IN VENUES 1st Friday & 1st Sunday of the month in Street held at SEDA, Strode House, 10 Leigh Road, Street 10.30am ~ 12.302nd Friday of the month in Taunton held at Taunton library Meeting Room Paul street, Taunton. 10.30am ~ 12.303rd Friday of the month in Frome held at Frome Library Meeting Room, Justice Lane, Frome. 10.30am ~ 12.304th Wednesday of the month in Yeovil held at Penn House, St Nicholas Close, Yeovil (off Penn Hill) 7.30pm - 9pm

© 2004 ~Somerset and Wessex Eating Disorders Association Date: