Georgia Taylor has received treatment for an eating disorder since she was 14 years old. Now 19 she has described the real challenge young people face as they move from adolescent to adult services. Originally from Bridgend, she actually had to go England to receive treatment at one point because of a lack of provision in Wales.
She is now campaigning to improve the experience of people being treated for eating disorders. She has written this piece for WalesOnline about her experiences and why it has motivated her to make a change:
When I turned 18, I knew that the mental health services I had been accessing since the age of 15 were no longer going to be available to me and I had no idea what my treatment would look like from that day on.
I was incredibly worried about the idea of moving to adult mental health services because I had built trusting relationships with staff members at CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and was progressing well in my recovery. This drastic change occurred whilst I was moving to university as well, so I found all of these changes at once very overwhelming.
I have been receiving treatment for an eating disorder since I was 14. I was with a very secure team at CAMHS who were able to get me to a point where I was responding well to treatment and slowly getting better. Then I turned 18, and this is where it all changed.
Unfortunately, I faced terrible problems after reaching the age of 18 moving to adult services and due to this, I reached a crisis point and needed to be hospitalised. The drastic change in treatment the moment you have your 18th birthday is something that no one can prepare you for. You are now in charge of your own treatment and your parents and CAMHS team have no control over you anymore. My eating disorder used this to its advantage and I declined very rapidly.
The demand on adult mental health services is unbelievable, which meant despite showing signs of rapid deterioration and needing a hospital admission, I was only accepted for a bed in an adult psychiatric unit when I had reached a dangerously low BMI.
I was put on a waiting list for a specialist inpatient unit and in the meantime stayed in an adult psychiatric ward. This was a frightening experience for me as a 19 year old girl, and although staff members helped as much as possible, there was limited knowledge of how to treat eating disorders. Therefore, during this treatment, I continued to lose weight and my physical health became seriously compromised. I was transferred to a medical ward as my body was shutting down. Unfortunately, I experienced the same issue on the medical ward with the worrying lack of knowledge of how to treat my serious illness.
Finally, when I managed to get accepted for a bed in an eating disorder specialist unit, it was incredibly difficult because I was sent to an inpatient unit in England as there is no Eating Disorder Unit in Wales. I was told I could’ve even ended up in Scotland! After nine long months, I was finally discharged and now receive support from services at home. I want to use my experience to support other young people who may be going through a similar thing.
During my mental health journey I have been a regular volunteer with the Youth Voice Network at Mind. I have been a member of lived experience advisory panels to influencing how mental health services may be shaped for young people in the future. During my hospital admission, I wanted to start campaigning for improvements in mental health services and joined a campaign within Mind called Sort the Switch.
This is a campaign calling on the Welsh Government and mental health services to listen to young people and sort the switch from specialist child to adult mental health services. This campaign is really important to me because the lack of consistency and continuity in treatment whilst moving into adult mental health services has caused many young people to become extremely unwell. I feel that if I had earlier intervention from adult services, my serious relapse could have been prevented. I wanted to share my story and challenge the Welsh Government to make changes urgently.
So far, I have written several articles about my experience which have been published onto Mind’s website and have been used to support the campaign. In November last year, I was given the opportunity to speak in the Senedd with other young people who have experienced similar struggles whilst moving to adult services. We all had our own story to share but we all had the same belief that no more time can be wasted and change needs to be made now.
Not only did I raise concerns about the risk of any young person transitioning from CAMHS, but I also spoke about the serious risk that this move may pose for young people with eating disorders. The feedback from members of the Senedd has been really encouraging. Since speaking with the Sort The Switch campaign, I have stayed in contact with my local MS and I have been influencing the work that she has been doing to support local mental health services.
Our feedback has also been shared with the deputy minister for mental health and issues have been raised by MS’s in discussions with the First Minister. I am hopeful that these conversations will continue and that action will be implemented sooner rather than later. I am a big believer that prevention is better than cure.
I am lucky that I am now at such a better place. I have worked really hard to follow advice from the professionals and I am hoping to return to University this September. I now have a great team who have been an amazing support and work hard with me weekly. I hope to never have to go into hospital again.
Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses and not receiving treatment quickly enough could be fatal. I believe if I was able to access the treatment by adult mental health services earlier, I may not have gotten to the point of nearly losing my life. I’m just glad I’ve been able to turn those bad experiences into something positive. Now our voices are being heard by ministers, I’m confident things will improve for future generations.
To find out more about Mind’s Sort the Switch campaign, click here.
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