In recent years, change and progress have come to the eating disorder world. What experts understand now is different from five years ago, even two years ago. Research and clinical experience are bringing new insights, new tools, and new optimism to the field. Clinicians treating eating disorders are busy people, and keeping up is a challenge. Keeping a clinic’s website updated is also demanding, but necessary: your website is your public face and "the first port of call" for many families, even if they never come in for an appointment. In the month of April, F.E.A.S.T.’s Media Outreach Task Force is calling on the eating disorder field to refresh their website information: “Google Yourself in April.”
Many content providers are surprised to learn that their websites contain antiquated or harmful information. Often, the information is simply recycled from older materials or not updated over time. In many cases, the information has been provided by outside contractors or from syndicated content. F.E.A.S.T. is asking all eating disorder treatment providers to review their website content in the month of April, 2011. Check your website for what it says about families and if it is outdated, update it. On May 1, 2011, the F.E.A.S.T. community will be encouraged to identify websites that continue to present information that blames, marginalizes, or misleads parents about their role during treatment.
We will invite parents to submit those examples to our website, where we will publish them online for public view.
Here are the things we will be looking for:
- Blaming parents for causing eating disorders, in part or as primary cause.
- Attributing eating disorders to dysfunctional family dynamics.
- Listing any of the following as causing eating disorders: parents with inappropriate “boundaries,” parents with poor body image, enmeshed mothers, distant fathers
- Using terms like "contribute to," "enable," "trigger," "risk factor" as a substitute for "cause"
- Advising parents to leave treatment decisions, including nutritional and weight decisions, to children
- Advising parents not to discuss treatment and not involving parents in the treatment
- Advising parents not to be the “food police” or be involved with cooking and food decisions
- Advising parents that patients have to “want” to get better
- Regarding parent responsibilities around this illness as distinct from those with other serious illnesses
F.E.A.S.T.’s Media Outreach Task Force has worked for years with major website providers to update their information about eating disorders, especially about the role of parents in treatment. This work has been very successful. Influential websites have deleted outdated ideas such as “Don’t be the food police” and “Eating disorders are a sign of enmeshed, chaotic families.” In addition to reviewing bad content, the Task Force works successfully sites to add important information, such as the success of evidence-based treatments, and in particular the family intervention called “Family-Based Treatment” or “Maudsley.”
However, this is not a negative campaign! F.E.A.S.T. wants to find and praise websites that offer helpful, updated information as well. We will also be encouraging parents around the world to seek out sites with good information. We will ask all our members to review sites with excellent, family-positive content – using the F.E.A.S.T. principles as a guide:
Our Principles
- Eating disorders are biologically based mental illness and fully treatable with a combination of nutritional, medical, and therapeutic supports.
- Parents do not cause eating disorders, and patients do not choose eating disorders.
- Parents and caregivers are a powerful tool for a loved one's recovery from eating disorder.
- Blaming and marginalizing parents in the eating disorder treatment process causes harm and suffering.
- When available, patients should receive evidence-based treatment.
- Families should be supported in seeking the most appropriate treatment in the least restrictive environment possible.
- Food is medicine: all treatment should include urgent and ongoing nutritional rehabilitation.
- When the family is supported, the patient is supported.
- Siblings and all family members are affected by a family member's illness, and deserve full attention to their needs.
- Parents have unique abilities to offer other parents support, information, and the wisdom of experience.
The era of treating parents as part of the problem, instead of part of the solution, ends NOW.
For more information, contact:
Laura Collins
Executive Director
F.E.A.S.T. (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders)
(540) 227-8518
www.feast-ed.org
info@feast-ed.org
For an opportunity to join other families and professionals in person to learn more about parents and eating disorder treatment, join F.E.A.S.T. for a two-day symposium outside Washington DC, November 3-4, 2011.