Anorexia and other eating disorders for 3 mln: from social media to TV marathon, the blanket campaign begins

Approximately 3 million people in Italy are affected by anorexia, bulimia and other eating and nutrition disorders (ODD) and of these, a 35% increase is the legacy of the pandemic. Translated, about a quarter of the population with these discomforts derives from the Covid period, which has 'unleashed' hidden ills or exacerbated new ones. The other datum to be lined up is the age of onset, which is getting lower and lower until it intrudes into childhood.

It is on the basis of this data that the Ministry of Health is launching the new three-year communication programme with a cognitive-psychological slant with the claim 'Nobody can judge you', of which adolescents and their families are the primary target. It will work on several levels: from pure 'advertising' with posters and messages in the print media and docu-spots on TV to social media, with web panels, experts and influencers and events in three cities in the North, Centre and South. The culmination is scheduled for 15 March - Lilac Ribbon Day - when a radio and TV marathon with sports personalities and specialists is planned.

The objectives are to inform correctly from a scientific point of view, to help those affected to recognise the disease immediately, and also 'to help them ask for help', from institutions and doctors. The guiding element is the mirror: 'We think that today's social media are a distorted mirror of society and we need to work on this terrain,' explain the ministry, 'getting closer to young people and using their own tools. The mirror as a leitmotif therefore, considering that it is precisely in the all too often misleading and unreachable messages conveyed on social networks that young people do not recognise themselves, with the risk of developing discomfort and a sense of inadequacy that can be the antechamber to Dan. Often not recognised early on and not adequately treated: the claim 'No one can judge you' also calls into question the stigma that often accompanies these psychiatric pathologies.

Lining up the available resources is Health Undersecretary Marcello Gemmato: he recalls that the National Fund for the fight against eating disorders, established by the 2022 manoeuvre and implemented in 2024, "has made available a total of 45 million in the three-year period 2022-2024, earmarked for the Regions to strengthen the integrated and multi-professional outpatient network, encourage early interception of the onset, strengthen residential facilities, implement Evidence-Based treatment paths; apply the "Percorso Lilla" in emergency rooms, train operators according to updated clinical protocols and involve families in the treatment path". All this in a context in which, he emphasised, 'thanks to the resources allocated by the 2025 manoeuvre, 500,000 euro have been earmarked for 2025, 2026 and 2027 for Dan prevention' - precisely those that will be used for the new three-year campaign - while 'the 2026 manoeuvre allocates 80 million euro in 2026, 85 million euro in 2027, 90 million euro in 2028, 30 million euro annually from 2029 to the National Mental Health Plan'.

Funds that are sorely needed, as the Consult@Noi and Coordinamento Nazionale Dca associations, which in all have a total of 40 organisations in the area, point out. And they renew their request to Health Minister Schillaci to make the funding structural 'because until today psychologists and neuropsychiatrists have been hired who, if they were to stay at home tomorrow, would leave our children alone', is the appeal. Then the request to be 'fully utilised' by the institutions with a view to strengthening interventions, from general medicine to schools to the world of sport, in the face of a real 'atomic bomb exploding in families'.