The British Dietetic Association (BDA) is proud to support this year's national Eating Disorders Awareness Week (20-26 February 2012).

Each year, February heralds a number of national organisations and charities who run various eating disorder awareness days/weeks, with eating disorder experts reaching out with a view to raise awareness and how members of the public can access help. This year, one of the most prominent awareness weeks is being run by Beat, the UK-wide organisation supporting people affected by eating disorders, their family members and friends. They are also the world's largest eating disorders charity.

The BDA, founded in 1936, is the professional association for registered dietitians in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the nation's largest organisation of food and nutrition professionals.

Dietitians have a key role in the management of those suffering from eating disorders. As eating disorders comprise both psychological and physiological components, treatments should combine expertise in both with health professionals understanding the nutritional and physiological effects these disorders can have. Dietitians have an essential role within multidisciplinary teams and are involved in the assessment, treatment and monitoring of patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. Dietetic input should be offered to both inpatients and outpatients as an adjunct to other treatments.

Dietitians are specialised in assessing nutritional requirements and are up to date in latest nutritional information, so can provide accurate and relevant information for patients including those with additional dietary requirements e.g. diabetes or food allergy. As poor eating patterns and unhealthy views surrounding food are primarily symptoms of eating disorders, not the cause, diet and weight concerns can be addressed by a dietitian leaving other health professionals to deal with the underlying issues of the eating disorder.

A dietitian can:

• Act as a specialist within a multi-disciplinary team
• Act as a consultant to other health professionals advising on nutritional aspects of care, appropriate literature to use and providing training as required
• Run nutrition education sessions for patients covering general topics with regards to nutrition and basic physiology
• Act as a co-therapist in individual treatments, and in therapy groups where nutrition is a major component e.g. bulimia nervosa or overeaters groups
• Have long-term individual contact with patients
• Review patient eating diaries
• Design and review nutrition plans for the patient
• Monitor weight and amend nutritional plans as appropriate
• Liaise with and support families and carers as required.

Speaking about the BDA's support of the Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Ursula Philpot, Chairman of the Association's Mental Health Group, which incorporates eating disorders, said: "For many people still, an eating disorder is viewed as someone being a fussy eater or, even in some cases, someone who is looking for attention. The very sad reality is an eating disorder is a mental health condition that can have a massive negative impact not only on the individual, but their entire family and friends. Indeed, in some cases it can lead to premature death.

Ultimately the role of a dietitian is to help patients learn to trust food again. When patients have followed restrictive or chaotic eating patterns for a period of time their beliefs about food and nutrition can become very distorted and rigid. Changing poor eating patterns is very difficult to do, even with very motivated patients. It inevitably means breaking numerous dietary 'rules' and, as with other elements of treatment, involves risk and experimentation. Dietitians are uniquely qualified to support changes to diet and weight behaviours, and give service users the confidence to change these.

The British Dietetic Association is very proud to support this year's Eating Disorders Awareness Week."