Holding a Beacon of Hope through Parliament

In this week's episode, Han is joined by Baroness Kate Parminter. Kate is affiliated with the Liberal Democrat party and works within the Environment and Climate Change Committee. Kate has experience with her daughter having an eating disorder, which has driven her passion to bring about change for eating disorder support through her role within the government.In this week's episode, we discuss:

• Kate's personal experience of supporting her daughter with an eating disorder, and how this has motivated her passion to campaign for eating disorders.

• Kate's 3 goals for improving the support for eating disorders:

  • Improving the training provided to medical professionals regarding eating disorders.

  • Reducing the waiting times and creating a minimum waiting time for adult patients.

  • Increasing the number of beds available for patients with eating disorders.

• The urgency of determining the prevalence of eating disorders, and the importance of further research and government support.

• Kate's efforts and aims for improving medical professional training, increasing beds, and establishing a waiting time standard for adults, and how she is working with the government to achieve them.

• The horror of the term "terminal anorexia", palliative care, and how we are not providing the appropriate support for patients.

• Improving the online safety bill to support individuals with eating disorders by recognising content that can cause harm, and protecting vulnerable adults by having an "opt-in" option on potentially harmful content.

• The importance of speaking to individuals with lived experience when making changes to a service or legislation.

To keep updated on Kate's work, or to get in contact with Kate, you can find her on Twitter @kateparminter or email her at parminterk@parliament.co.uk.

Please note that this podcast discusses eating disorder topics that some individuals may find triggering. Please check in with yourself along the way, and remember this is not a replacement for clinical support and advice.