Eating disorders are thought to affect up to nine per cent of the population, affecting both males and females and people from all cultural backgrounds.

It is not known why someone gets an eating disorder. There is no single cause, but many factors may contribute such as genes and the environment that the young person grows up in.

While many young people worry about body image and will often try dieting and/or exercise to lose weight, these behaviours by themselves are very different from eating disorders.  Below are some great resources around eating disorders:

The Butterfly Foundation can provides a number of the resources that are free:

For schools - Butterfly Foundation

The National Eating Disorder Collaboration has created excellent resources which is attached below. This resource provides a comprehensive guide on Prevention, Early Identification, Response and Recovery Support.

https://nedc.com.au/assets/NEDC-Resources/NEDC-Resource-Schools.pdf

Our Eating Disorder Clinical Hub is available on 5124 1235 and chs.edch@act.gov.au if you have questions.