the SRSH conference this year was a huge success, thanks to our wonderful speakers! Students and university staff came from across the country travelling from a-far afield as St Andrews and Newcastle to gather together in Wadham college for a packed day of talks and conversation. 

Natasha Devon opened the day with an inspiring discussion on body image - she challenged all of us to redefine our beliefs and think about the filters we use to interpret the information we take on board. 

Following on from this theme, Charlotte Garthener proposed an idea for putting this into practice, with Body Gossip on Tour... more information to follow! Watch this space! 
Taking these ideas forwards, Helen Sharpe walked us through her work on developing media awareness and body confidence workshops for school children and we reflected on the value of running similar workshops for university students. 

Following Lunch we heard from three young researchers. Radha Kothari gave us a fantastic introduction to the cognitive profile of individuals with eating disorders, thinking about how risk taking, attention and motivation might all be disrupted in eating disroders and what impact this would have on consequent behaviour. 

Felicity Cowdery was able to share her work in the field of neuroimaging and demonstrated how neural activity appears altered in individuals who have recovered form eating disorders in comparison to individuals who have never had eating disorders. Part of this picture suggests that there is enhanced processing of food as reward and part suggested that whatever disruptions may have been present in the eating disorder remain following recovery... this is a difficult web of ideas to unpick, but Felicity helped us start! 

Peter Musiat introduced our volunteers to the formal evaluation we are currently running of SRSH and the efficacy of the SRSH self help groups. He encouraged all volunteers to work with the individuals attending their groups to build upon the level of feedback we get back from attendees. This is so important when it comes to thinking about how to develop the project. To take part in this evaluation and give feedback on a group you have attended, please visit the feedback section of this site.

We had a very interesting session run by Dr Debbie Waller and Dr Linnette Whitehead who were able to talk us through how their jobs work with students with eating disorders. Debbie Waller, a GP here in Oxford, opened up some discussion on whether students with severe eating disorders should be allowed to stay at university or encouraged to take time out to recover. The feeling was very much that if an intensive burst of therapy is available this would be a far more effective choice for a student in the long run than trying to battle on with the university degree. After all, universities should be holding places open for individuals who are too ill to study, so if the cost is time, it is time worth spending! 

Linette was able to walk us through her role as a consultant clinical psychologist and reflect on the complications of out patient and inpatient treatment. 

We closed the day with a short but very brave pannel of individuals who had recovered from or were in recovery for eating disorders. The pannel all answeres questions on aspects of recovery and shared their ideas on what could be done to support others with eating disorders. 

And a huge thanks to Wadham College and the Turl Street Kitchen for accommodating our event!