Are you (or someone you know) struggling to access the eating disorder support or treatment you need? We might be able to help.
We have an advocacy service that offers different types of support. This page refers to our letter-writing service, but we also have a casework service and an advisory service for politicians.
When people try to access treatment, there are lots of different clinical guidelines that say what this treatment and information should look like. Sometimes, these guidelines aren’t followed because of pressures on services, or because there isn’t enough understanding of eating disorders.
If you have been denied treatment or information, our service generates a full letter for you that you can send to your clinician or team that made the decision. This letter will outline your situation and describe what national guidelines say should happen in the situation.
We will give you some advice on what to do with the letter when we send it to you. Our aim is for clinicians that receive these letters to reconsider the decision they have made.
You can read more about some of the common decisions that we hear about from people who contact us. This includes decisions we have worked to challenge to ensure people get the support and information they deserve. We understand it can be difficult to know whether a decision has been made without following guidelines, however, our advocacy team will help find where guidelines have not been met in your case
Sometimes a decision that is in line with guidelines might feel like the wrong one, and that could be because it hasn’t been fully explained to you. In these cases, we can help you in asking for more clarity and information from the clinician or service that made the decision.
It is important to note also that a decision that is not in line with the clinical guidelines is different to a decision that has followed the guidelines that you disagree with. We are always happy to discuss your situation and see how we can best support you.
Please note that we try and keep our eligibility criteria as wide as possible, and we review this criteria regularly.
To access this service:
If you have read the above and would like a letter from this service, please contact our Helpline by using our one-to-one webchat, calling us, or by email. When you contact us, mention this letter service and the team will be happy to help. They are open from Monday-Friday from 3pm-8pm.
Please note that our letters are written by our internal artificial intelligence tool. This is only used within Beat, and data is kept in line with our privacy policy. All letters are checked by our Advocacy Team to ensure they reflect your situation accurately and mention the relevant guidelines. After this has been done, we will send the letter to you by email so you can forward it to the relevant clinician or service/s.