freEDom

It has been a while since I have posted as I have been unwell and unable to attend the past two group meetings. However, I am better and attended the latest meeting which held some exciting news.
In between catching up on what's happened and my explaining the work I have been doing whilst unable to attend 2 meetings I learnt that we are set to become an official organization (the 1/2 trees worth of documents to be signed and filled in was quite a sight to behold.) How very exciting!

So watch this space.

Kate <3

Support Group

The time has come for us to really focus on how we're going to set up the support groups. It's a lot of work - but it's something that we are so determined to achieve that I'm quite sure we will succeed.

Please email us - dispellingthemythsforum@gmail.com if you're interested attending either the family/friends support group or the sufferers support group. All enquiries will be completely anonymous, of course and we'd really love to have some people to come along!

We will update you more when we know more!

Later on, as a branch off the support group, we're hoping to start a mentor program - between people who are really recovered and people who are only just embarking on the journey of recovery. The mentors can help the mentee with facing feared foods/situations and provide support - however the mentor would never be seen as a counsellor. Again, that's just in the works, so keep thy eyes tuned!!!!

<3
Be well!
Noelle

Long time no update!

Hi Guys!
So sorry we haven't updated in over a month - naughty us. *slaps hand*

I think we've all been busy with our personal lives, and keeping up with the awareness work and our own recovery.

However, we have some exciting news. The meeting with Katy Gallagher went fantastically well. She's pledged 5 out of 20 beds of a new inpatient mental health facility for Young People to eating disorder sufferers. She's agreed that Phillip Health Centre will recieve an upgrade (of $5 million which will be spread across all community health centres) which will be enough to host an adequate eating disorders program (y'all know...like a kitchen to teach dietitics in, etc.) However - the mental health facility leaves out those with eating disorders under the age of 13 (yes, we all know from recent media reports that 6 and 8 year olds are struggling with anorexia nervosa) and over the age of 25. So where does it leave those people? It's a start, it's a good start, but it's not enough.

We were also on stateline again :) Which is awesomely exciting. Here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s2275426.htm

We've also been approached by 60 Minutes, and should be hearing back from them soon - so we might be on their show soon, which is pretty darn cool.

And we're also designing a documentary "what it's really like to live with an eating disorder" although the title will be way snappier and cooler. We're so sick of these people making documentaries which make treatment look like a summer camp and having an eating disorder, all fun. So we're going to make it real - and we're going to show just how crap it really is.

Hope everyone's well! Promise that we'll update much more frequently!
<3
Noelle