Feb. 2005

Bulletin February 2005

Download theFeedback Questionnaire accompanying the February 2005 Bulletin (for back to back printing).

2005 is a year to welcome in new people into SWEDA. Often change is difficult for us , the new and unfamiliar creates anxiety and worry however, we feel very confident that your worries will be put at bay when you meet our new and reshuffled team.

SWEDA organizational changes

Last year we said goodbye to Annie Wynn Jones Sally Parsons, Tricia Roche and Sandra Woodward. We would like to welcome this year Paula, Kate, Brian and David

New Trustees

Brian Roberts-Wray
My introduction to the voluntary sector came in 1989 when I abandoned a career in marketing and advertising and was appointed director of fundraising with Marie Curie Cancer Care. I did this job for six years and retired from full time employment in 1995 in order to become a self-employed Voluntary sector consultant. This work first brought me into contact with (then) SEDA in 2000 when I was asked to undertake a Strategic study into SEDA's marketing and fundraising. After completing this study I was asked to be available from time to time to advise on the implementation of my proposals.
I retired from consultancy a year ago, and last autumn I was invited to become a trustee of SWEDA, with a view to becoming Chairman. In this role I see my first priority as facilitating an exercise where we define our priorities, both amongst our current activities and also on additional services we would like to provide, but cannot at present afford. Once that is complete, it seems probable that a greater emphasis on generating voluntary income will become imperative, but I will keep you informed about this as plans develop.

David Holt
I have recently joined Sweda as a new trustee. I am an accountant who has worked for most of my professional life in the water industry having previously been in the professional accounting sector in Leeds. I’ve lived in Somerset for the past 29 years and have two grown up sons. My involvement in the voluntary sector began with the PTA in my local village school and looking after the accounts of various local charitable organisations.

I have spent seven of the past nine years working as a listening volunteer with the Samaritans and helping to deliver training to new volunteers. This ceased two years ago with a change in my personal circumstances. I have some limited experience of the issues that we are trying to address and I am now looking to do what I can to assist Sweda in the work they are doing.

New Staff

Paula Blight
I am pleased to be appointed Business Manager to SWEDA at a very exciting time for the organisation. For the past 10 years I successfully ran the business side of an arts organisation which marketed and promoted visual arts. My grounding in business first started with Max Factor where I worked in sales covering the Somerset and Wessex regions. Then I was promoted and moved to London to work within the busy marketing department at head office.

You know its funny how things turn around! Now, back in Somerset & Wessex with my new role at SWEDA. I am here to manage the business and organisation side of the Charity, working closely alongside Anita Worcester the newly appointed Client Services Manager. To date (10 days in) I have received a very warm welcome from everyone and for those of you I haven’t yet met I’m sure I’ll catch up with you soon!

Kate Butler
Ok…..So here is just a quick hello and brief introduction from me……..My name is Kate and I’m the newly appointed administrative assistant for SWEDA. I graduated from Kingston Uni in 2003 with a degree in ‘Nutrition’, and am currently undertaking a course in ‘Naturopathic Nutritional Therapy’. It was my keen interest in food, health and well-being that initially led me to become involved with SWEDA.

My role within the SWEDA team is to provide secretarial and clerical support, also to provide reception cover and be on the end of the telephone. I will be in the office every weekday morning, and I look forward to speaking and meeting with you soon.

Farewell and Thank you

October and November 2004 saw us saying Goodbye and Thank you to:

Sally Parsons – Sally stepped down as a SWEDA Trustee and we would like to endorse the sincere thanks extended to her at the AGM for her many years of commitment.

Tricia Roche – In her farewell address, Tricia amusingly used the AGM to record SWEDA’s history from the roles of Mendip CVS and Debbie Paton, to explaining where Annie Wynn-Jones fitted in, and how the first funding by Comic Relief allowed Bobby Appleby’s appointment and hence the birth of MEDA. Tricia explained how she became involved after the 1996 Conference and that more funding turned MEDA to SEDA and she spoke of the early volunteers and how Diana Rowe had taken the cause of Eating Disorders with her and was a strong supporter of MEDA, SEDA and now SWEDA.

Tricia wound up her speech at the AGM by saying that for her the experience of being involved with our organisation had been very special and that it is an organisation that makes such a difference. Tricia brought so much to our organisation and through her funding bids we have our Supported Housing and 18-25 Projects still running. She was compassionate and, with her family, created a family environment at SWEDA and always made people feel welcome, valued and a part of the organisation. We know you will join us in wishing her, and her family, all the very best for the future.

Annie Wynn-Jones – Everyone was sad to see Annie leave after her many years at the helm and, as Tricia pointed out at the AGM, it was Annie and Bobby who set the foundations of the ethos that has continued. She also said that Annie was an extraordinary and very special person and that she had kept faith and kept the organisation moving forward. She spoke of Annie’s supportive ways and how she had never sought the self-satisfaction of glory or to use her level of influence other than for the best of everyone else. Annie responded by asking that SWEDA hang on to the following: Remember that we are Community-based, we are User-led, we are not experts, we are here to provide things that users want and because we are in the voluntary sector we can be more flexible. We are based on the principle of Self-help and we are Professional – voluntary sector amateurs we are not! That gives us CUSP. We have been through various CUSPs and this is just another. Then she turned to what we are not: Eating Disorders aren’t about Food or weight. We are not Experts, we are not Amateurs and we are not a Treatment agency. That gives us FEAT and we have achieved lots of FEATs. She ended by saying that SWEDA is on the CUSP and will go on to achieve lots more FEATs. Many of you reading this Bulletin will either have become involved with SWEDA through Annie or will have come to regard her highly because of your association with her at SWEDA and we’re sure you will all join us in thanking Annie and wishing her (and Richard) every success for the future.

Sandra Woodward – Sadly, due to our major reorganisation, Sandra had to leave us in November. Knowing that this was happening, Tricia had thanked Sandra for her loyalty and dedication at the AGM, but before she left colleagues, volunteers and trustees all said goodbye at a lively lunch at the Ring of Bells where she was deluged with gifts and flowers. We thank Sandra sincerely for all of her hard work in the office over very many years. She not only worked on the clerical side but also covered payroll and accounts aspects of the business, besides meeting and greeting all our many visitors. In particular, we thank her for the effort she put into forming the Pen Pals Scheme and in the excellent job of producing our Bulletins and Annual Report each year usually working to extremely short deadlines. Again, we know you will join us in wishing Sandra well in the future.

When you suspect someone close to you has an eating disorder think carefully beforehand how you are going to approach the issue with the person.

Firstly, inform yourself as much as you can about eating disorders, identify resources that will help and support both yourself and the person close to you. Identify where the person can get help so when you approach the person he/she will know you are serious about helping him/her.

Get useful information, perhaps from your GP, perhaps from an eating disorder association. Find out where to get professional help from a therapist, a nutritionist, someone who specialises in eating disorders. Make sure you have their phone numbers and in what respect that can be of assistance to this person close to you. So that when you approach the person close to you, you can help allay his/her fears.

So what are the symptoms that may lead you to suspect someone close to you has an eating disorder? Eating disorders cover three main different definitions and the following symptoms indicate any one of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Compulsive Overeating or Binge Eating. The issues with food are a faulty coping mechanism for underlying emotional issues in any of the definitions above. If the person close to you possesses any three of the following symptoms it does indicate the person has issues with food and is in need of help and support.

Cooking for others but not eating themselves.

Remember that someone with an eating disorder is very vulnerable. They will probably be shocked to find that you have identified their problem. People with an eating disorder are very secretive about their issues and because they feel shamed and guilty will very often deny the disorder. If you can approach the person gently with empathy this could give them the opportunity to talk about the denial, the shame and the issues that are making them unhappy. You will then have the opportunity to help this person to take his/her first step to getting help.

If, however the person is in denial about their problem, do not give up on them, let them know that when they are ready you will still be there to support and encourage them to make their first step in order to get help. Let them know you are only concerned about their health and happiness and that you care deeply about them. If the person is a close family member let them know you will love them unconditionally and that their behaviour will not change how much you care and love them. (Edwina Aptis)

Stranger

A woman stands, alone, in the centre of an empty room. To her right lies a bed with a cheap wooden headboard. Upon the bed, a single pillow, white, and plain navy blankets stretched so tight across the bedspread that not a wrinkle remains. At the foot of the bed, a flimsy pine wardrobe. Opposite, a matching set of drawers. A small mirror is bolted to the wall in the corner, above stainless-steel taps and a sink so spotlessly white that it hurts your eyes to look at it. A narrow ledge to the left. A square white radiator stretched beneath the window.

That is all.

At the woman's feet sits a single black suitcase, unopened.

Outside, it is night. The darkness hangs, cool and soft, beyond the glass. But it cannot penetrate the harsh electric glare from the strip-lighting overhead. No shadows. No shaded corners where stray insects or careless motes of dust can linger. Every square inch laid bare. The room is clean, with a cold, clinical precision, but it is not new. There are grey fingerprints on the wallpaper around the light switch and a lattice of fine cracks in the corner of the ceiling above the bed. The two blank poster boards are sprinkled with the slimy stains of two decades worth of blue-tac. The room is five and a half metres wide. She knows this because she has paced it, her flat-soled shoes soundless in the vacuum. Step, step, step. Step, step, a skip and a turn. The carpet has worn thin under the toil of countless feet.

There is not a sound in the room, no external presence. Not even the rhythmic, artificial pulse of a clock.

She stirs and kneels beside the suitcase. The clatter of the zip catapults into the room and disappears into the silence. She runs a hand, speculatively, over the folded clothes within. You would not catch more than the merest glimpse of the interior. She is crouched low over her possessions, shielding them from view as if to press it to her cheek and bury her face in its freshly-laundered aroma. Some reflex prevents her. Her face hardens into a grimace of taut neutrality. She climbs to her feet and crosses the room to hang the towel over the rack by the washstand. Folding the edges so that the corners meet and smoothing out the wrinkles with the palm of her hand.

The room looks on, expectant. Any moment now, an inquisitive impulse will propel her into exploration; she will peer and examine, rattle coat-hangers and arrange shoes neatly in pairs, find new homes for the simple collection of jars and bottles in her cosmetics bag. She draws in one long, shuddering breath.

You might compare this room to a blank sheet of paper before a celebrated author. Snowy and flawless, it is a sea of infinite possibility before him. He is afraid. He fears to break the pearly whiteness with ink, he cannot give the infinity definition because in doing so, boundaries will spring up from nothingness and realms of possibility will be lost. He cannot form a single stroke. The room is not a blank page.

It is the finished product, a brand new paperback, unread. The cardboard cover is crisp and stiff in its newness, the pages are uniform and immaculate, the corners unharmed. The world that the author has created, the visions and concepts, characters and emotions, are locked tight between the sealed sheets. Mere 2D black shapes on a typed page. They require a reader to unravel their code, translate lifeless forms into living images. That reader dare not come.

A cramp forms in the coiled muscles of her legs. She rocks forward on to her knees and leans her weight on to her palms against the hard floor, gasping as the circulation returns. Movement is required. She puts her hands into the dark depths of the bag and draws out a folded towel, holding it up before her face, examining it as if for the first time.

From the suitcase, she draws out a simple white towelling dressing-gown and hangs it on a hook behind the door. She places a pair of sensible black shoes near the foot of the bed, lined up so that they are exactly parallel with the wardrobe, laces tucked in. Her wash bag is placed, unopened, upon the sink. Then she returns the suitcase to the cavity between the chest of drawers and the smooth curve of the washstand. She pulls the zip closed. Inside, the modest pile of folded trousers and stacked tops remains untouched. The shelves of the wardrobe remain bare.

She stands and gazes dispassionately at the results of her labour. The folded towel, the sensible shoes, the harsh finality of the closed black bag in the white room. Somewhere outside in the night, a church clock begins to chime. Boom, boom… Eleven. As if by a prearranged signal, she moves to the mirror and stares levelly at her own reflection, wan against the severity of its backdrop. She reaches up to her hair. One long-fingered hand pulls out a pin from the right-hand side. The other extracts a second from the nape of her neck. Straight, shoulder-length black hair tumbles down around her face. A shudder runs through her. A soft, drawn-out sigh escapes into the room. Then she turns aside and places the pins with calm deliberation on the ledge, two inches apart and parallel, the clasps facing forwards.

Over the years, this is the pattern in which her life will evolve. Every night, on the stroke of eleven, she will return to the mirror and slowly remove those two pins from her hair. Never earlier, never later. She will pace that room from one end to the other, step, step, step. Step, step, a skip and a turn, until the first stroke sounds. Then she will stare with cold indifference into the reflection before her and reach up one hand into her silky dark hair. Move just one pin, let it fall to the floor, place it on the shelf with the clasp facing backwards not forwards, and she is lost. A butterfly beating its wings frenziedly against the smooth glass walls of a jam-jar. The room unfamiliar. A stranger.

(Anon)

SWEDA services
Currently we are running the pen pals scheme, email support, Wednesday Morning helpline sessions 10-1 pm, counselling service, telephone support for professionals, information packages, partnership working with Somerset NHS trust and looking at developing our training packs, conferences and how we can meet your needs better. Please could you assist us with this by filling in the questionnaire and returning it to me Nikki at SWEDA or on line. www.swedauk.org

Website
The websites that we have are being used increasingly in particular the message boards. There are interesting areas being discussed here on all sorts of issues from how to manage and deal with day to day life or in finding recovery from an eating disorder to closed message boards for people in certain areas to minimise feelings of isolation and loneliness to thoughts, poems quotes and updating news items.

When the message boards were first set up Paul was busy responding to many of the messages but now there is a lot more peer support happening which is great to see and makes the sites sustainable and user led.

Friends of SWEDA
The friends of SWEDA are an important element of SWEDA providing support by giving regular small amounts of £10 or £15 each year. We encourage you to join thereby supporting the maintenance of our services and helping us reach all those with eating disorders within the SWEDA region. Please contact Tricia Alford at SWEDA.

Steering Group
This forms the basis of SWEDA and is where people who use SWEDA can really get their say. Meetings are monthly and views and opinions are vital. If you have something to say then why not join the Steering Group, you could be anyone with an interest in Eating Disorders. Please contact Lynne Delve at SWEDA.

The pen pal scheme is open to all with eating disorders phone on 01458 448600
and ask for a leaflet and registration form

Members
SWEDA is happy to welcome new members. Membership is only £5.00 a year and this entitles members to have a say and vote at AGM’s

18-25 Project
Please see our website for all that is going on from socials to raining to groups and leaflet writing we are busy. The website and email support seems to be the main service students are using as it is available to them wherever they are. We need some support in Universities to set up support and safe spaces, without volunteers it is not possible for us to keep services in universities going.

We have had NSLP trainers in Bath University and hope this scheme will spread across others to raise awareness of ED in student life. www.sweda18-25.org.uk

Your suggestions are very welcome. Elly, Jess, Linnie, Abby, Sue and Lucy have been working hard in their university areas to get support up and running! Thank you

On Placement with 18-25
Hi, I’m Suzanne, a third year Psychology undergraduate on my placement year at the University of Bath. Having volunteered with the 18-25 project in the previous year, I chose to work with SWEDA for my placement year. In brief, here’s what I’ve been doing:

Student support - email, text, phone, one2one meetings, psychosocial events, support groups, forum group facilitation. .

Research for SWEDA - I have one day a week to carry out any research I choose in addition to my dissertation. At the moment I am looking various options.

Information and awareness raising – by visiting different universities, organisations and institutions to raise awareness of our work in supporting students.

Training sessions - 1 or 2 day training

Networking - with other student volunteers to enable them to increase awareness within their university and hopefully set up services.

If anyone has any ideas for different or ‘unique’ experiences that would help us please contact me on: suzanne@sweda18-25.org.uk and see the message board for a fuller report. http://www.swedauk.org/board/viewtopic.php?p=956#956

EATING DISORDERS AWARENESS CONFERENCE 2006

The Hidden Student - June 29/30 2006
We have an amazing line of presenters some of whom are named here :

Susie Orbach, Alex Yellowlees, Mike Beard ,The EDA sports and Body Talk

programmes, Ali Darcy from Dublin talking about her research on Body Whys Connect presenting their email discussion group, English Institute of Sport, Team Bath, a live interactive play, live band and much more including massage, relaxation and Studio Upstairs all through the conference so book early to avoid disappointment!

nicky@sweda18-25.org.uk

Diary Dates
Remember the first week in February each year is National eating disorders awareness week. So if it is too late this year start planning for next year! Lets make it a known of event in the South West in 2006!

For further information contact sweda office 01458 448611 or for 18-25 01458 837900 or see website www.swedauk.org. If you are running a training course that people may be interested, in you can post it on the courses message board.