51Âþ»­

A 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) student is helping shape services for young people with eating disorders across the county.

Alice Gibbs was diagnosed with anorexia aged 13 and believes she may have recovered sooner had there been more age-appropriate support available.

Alice main

The and student was asked to give a talk about her experiences to health and social care professionals from the Better Care Together delivery board for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Her "brave and emotive" presentation helped influence the decision to commission a specialist community eating disorders service that will see and support about 100 children and young people per year.

Alice said: "When I said I'd do the presentation it was spur of the moment. All the tables were mic-d up and it was scary.

"It struck me how shocked people were at what I was saying about how ill I was.

"But I am so happy with the result. If it means someone gets extra support or doesn't have a negative experience, that is fantastic."

The 20-year-old's current diagnosis is chronic anorexia, but she is quite well into recovery.

"During my first year of A Levels I was poorly and an inpatient in a unit, so I'm a year behind at university because of it," she said.

"I can deal with it a lot better now. The niggle is if the support had been there earlier I might not be here now."

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Alice is a member of Evolving Minds, a young advisors' group that aims to improve services and make them more young people friendly. The CAMHS team told her about the mental health and disability support offered by 51Âþ»­.

She said: "The 51Âþ»­ are fantastic. As soon as I was accepted they got in touch and said what they could offer and the adjustments that could be made.

"It made coming to university less scary and more doable."

Alice, who is now doing a with the mental health inclusion team, said her tutors have also been "brilliant", while skills learned on her courses helped with her talk to health bosses.

She said: "My confidence was low when I started the course and I have always been quite anxious. I need the confidence journalism has given me.

"I had to do a presentation for film and I was straight in with it, whereas before I would have chosen something different so I wouldn't have had to speak to people.

"Being a Frontrunner also builds confidence. There is support everywhere."

The specialist service for young people with eating disorders will be co-designed with young people and members of Evolving Minds, supported by Hayley Cocker, Service User Co Design Co-ordinator for Families Young People and Children's Services.

She said: "At the moment, people at crisis point end up in A&E. There is no help for emotional and mental health needs.

"We wanted to find out how young people wanted to be treated and are looking at providing a service for when they hit crisis to get them out of hospital more quickly.

"Alice's presentation was emotive and brave. She did an amazing job. It got people thinking and put a young person's experience into context.

"The extra funding will mean an extra 100 people with eating disorders can be treated per year in Leicester."