Living With Food: The Science Supporting Eating Disorder Treatment

By, Dr. Mark Warren

The word “community” is used in many of our blog posts and can have various meanings for different people. An obvious community that exists is a community of eating disorder providers. At CCED, we work very hard to stay in good contact and good relationships with other eating disorder providers, the local community, and across the United States to ensure that we know what our colleagues are thinking, doing, studying, and experiencing.

The history of therapy has historically been one in which providers worked only from one specific perspective and were often unaware of advances happening in other parts of the field. By being part of a community of providers, we strive to make sure that wherever good work and good care is happening we learn about it so our clients can benefit from it. Our community continually develops through direct communication with other individual providers, hospitals, residential centers, and with patients who have participated in these programs. It also happens through regular attendance to conferences in the United States and around the world. CCED is also an organizational member of numerous eating disorder organizations so that we can stay current in the field.

For patients and clients, the eating disorder community shares some things in common with the professional community. The relationship with the treatment center, program, or provider will help you obtain the information you need to make educated and important choices about your care. An issue that patients and their families unfortunately must confront is differences in treatment modalities among various providers. When these kinds of disagreements of philosophy occur, being able to trust a larger community of providers, patients, and families becomes critical. Most providers are giving you the best information they can based on the education they have. However, this does not necessarily mean they are as up to date or informed as they need to be. By reaching out to the larger community of other professionals, national organizations, and patients who have been through treatment, someone looking for care should hopefully be able to navigate conflicting information. The true community we would like for all of our patients is one in which they feel trusted, respected, understood, and are provided with the most excellent care, follow up, and support that they need to go on to lead the life they want to have.

Should you have any questions or comments regarding this post please email blog@eatingdisorderscleveland.org.

Contributions by Sarah Emerman