We are a volunteer led charity. We work with tens of young volunteers up and down the country to provide support to students with eating disorders. The project is entirely driven by people's personal experiences of life with an eating disorder: we constantly work with young people who have recovered from eating disorders to make sure the work we do is really relevant!

Did you know that our founding director has recovered from an eating disorder? Nicola set up the SRSH project following her own experiences struggling with an eating disorder in her teenage years.   

"I know I owe my recovery to having amazing people to talk to, people who really understood. Through SRSH my ambition is to ensure that all students have someone to talk to, someone who understands!"

The management and developed of SRSH is supported by an amazing team of young people - find out more about our development committee

We are also fortunate to be supported by a   wonderful team of trustees . 

But the hard work is all done by our phenomenal volunteers, who work to run their SRSH self help groups at their Universities. SRSH offers our volunteers an amazing opportunity to develop their skills and experience. We provide outstanding training, support and supervision to all our volunteers. But in return, they are the stars of this charity, working to make sure that students across their university campus have a safe and supportive environment to talk! Find our more about our volunteers , by reading their own stories. 

We run a national network of self help groups, providing informal peer-to-peer support to students when they need it. Our groups are open access: students don't need a referral to attend, they don't even need a diagnosis, the groups are there to offer support to anyone who thinks that it is time to talk. Sometime we are supporting people to open up for the first time about the problems they've been facing. Sometime we are there as the safety net to provide support to students waiting for a place in more formal treatment. and sometimes we are supporting those who have been through treatment and just want time and space to talk to people who understand what that is like and know how hard it can be to stay on track with recovery. 

And that is the point of a support group: we are constantly bringing together people who understand. People who know what you are talking about without it having to be spelled out. We know that it can be difficult to talk, but in a group setting, everyone is in the same boat, and all there to help each other on the road to recovery.  

We believe that Talking Changes Lives. While we know that at times professionals need to be involved in the treatment of mental health problems, we know too that feeling that you have someone to talk to, whoever that someone is, can make the world of difference. That someone could be anyone! We aim to empower students to be supportive; to be there to listen when people need to talk. 

We train small groups of student to run self help groups. We then provide ongoing support and supervision to help these students develop the skills they need to really be supportive. 

We also work with young people who have experienced mental health problems and eating disorders and support them to talk about their own experiences. This breaks down stigma and builds understanding. Talking really does Change Lives. 

Why not get involved?  www.srsh.co.uk/get-involved  

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