11/4/13

A Liaison to Recovery: Thoughts about Online Support in Eating Disorder Treatment


A search for online support to help people with eating disorders reveals several viable options. Many residential treatment programs offer free online support. These options are support-oriented forums either moderated by a therapist or simply available without any support or supervision. In addition, there are a few attempts at online real-time group therapy for a fee. Several therapists have a treatment manual on their website with forums that include support specifically geared to use that treatment program. 

There are also many clinicians and programs which offer daily support meant to reach out to those in need. Twitter feeds, Facebook posts and blogs all provide ways people in recovery or seeking treatment can find helpful words, sayings and approaches to recovery from an eating disorder. The kindness, caring and compassion available online extend the reach for clinicians to provide necessary help to many people who wouldn't otherwise have access to that support. 

As I have written several times in this blog, increased ease of communication is a boon for eating disorder treatment. Text, email, and videochat allow the option of real-time support for illnesses that are relentless. Even the best therapy session can lose its potency when that person sits down to a meal an hour later. Yet a simple text of support and encouragement right before that meal can transform the experience of eating in the moment. 

None of these observations is novel to clinicians who treat people with eating disorders or to patients in recovery. What is currently unavailable, according to my research, is a treatment service that has thought through the best combination of online and real-time aspects of treatment that could be provided. 

A hypothetical service ought to include many facets. After requesting an initial consultation, the patient could have a first appointment in person or by videochat to understand the treatment available and to be placed in an appropriate level of care. Much as a consultation with a clinician or program, the purpose of the first appointment is to fully assess the person's treatment needs and connect her with the best options.

One of the biggest differences in a more complete online treatment program would be the self-initiated treatment in addition to regular weekly appointments. Regular weekly sessions or groups invite exploration about the eating disorder symptoms and triggers without support at each meal. Even meal support groups offer help at most a few times per week. Online groups or forums could offer support at each meal at any time of the day. In order to access this support, the person would need to reach out for help of her own afford, a difficult step to take.

A way to orient new people to an online program that involves self-motivation would be the addition of a liaison or primary caregiver in the program to the treatment team. This person could stay in contact with the patient several times per day, set daily goals and help her access support at difficult times of
the day. The liaison could be more easily available than clinicians and alert other members of the team to daily progress, information now only really available when a patient is in an intensive, expensive treatment program. 

The liaison can encourage a patient to log on to a real-time meal support chat or app, fill in the food journal or post a journal entry on a forum. Since people in recovery typically feel so isolated and alone in their pursuit of health, a primary point person on the team more available each day could help prevent a difficult day lasting a week until the next appointment or even leading to a relapse. 

This program can also be a service that a primary therapist recommends for a patient. Much as I described the components of an outpatient team earlier in this blog, an online service that provides support forums, real-time groups, as needed meal support and a liaison to check in daily with patients could offer much more of the treatment that promotes actual recovery. This service could fill in the gaps in outpatient care that makes people feel very alone in recovery meal after meal after meal.

Moreover, a well-planned online treatment community could really compete with the growing, powerful pro-eating disorder websites. The outrage against sites that encourage girls to embrace such destructive illnesses hasn't been very effective. In fact, the powerful message communicated by women and girls fully engaged in their eating disorder continues to grow while the recovery messages, like many public service announcements, remain sidelined.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this discrepancy is that pro-eating disorder messages have no ulterior motive: people promoting eating disorders are just spreading the word for what they feel is a viable way to live. But even the most well-meaning treatment websites are run by businesses seeking success or public service sites run by non-profits: organizations unlikely to drum up such an enthusiastic following.

The online presence for recovery has to come from patients as well. One hopes that a service like this one could spread the word more clearly that an eating disorder is a dangerous trap to fall into, not a key to successful living. 

1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree with the other reviewers that you should keep going and skip the lines with the treat trails because there are plenty all across the park. I think we hit up around 5 treat trails and we must have had at least 10 lbs of candy from those trails. sarah

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