Access to Eating Disorder Treatment, Part II

The increased access to eating disorder treatment had a particularly significant effect during the pandemic. In many ways we—patients and clinicians—are all fortunate for the changes in the treatment landscape which occurred the years prior to COVID.

The incidence of eating disorders rose dramatically during the pandemic. Many people have theories about the cause in this rise including worsening mental health, social isolation and the inundation with social media images in the first year of the pandemic. The possible causes matter less than the response.

Even just a few years before 2020, the eating disorder community lamented the enormous shortage of treatment centers. There were few options across the country. Many areas of the country had no options at all. The result was that a large percentage of people with eating disorders never sought or found appropriate care.

In 2020, there were often long waitlists for treatment. However, the key point is that those people could find treatment even if they had to wait. In addition, the plethora of treatment centers also led to more clinicians in the community with experience either working in or with those centers. Thus, patients in the community were more likely to be diagnosed and appropriately treated during the rise in cases during the pandemic.

To be clear, I do not work with any of the national companies running treatment programs, nor do I have any stake in their success.

I have seen the changes in the eating disorder treatment landscape in the past two decades. Many clinicians reflexively lament the financial companies which have corporatized treatment, and those criticisms are valid. But any clinician who remembers the lack of options for care needs to admit that there is more access to care than ever before. Let’s hope these changes continue to add value to patient care and also to decrease the overall stigma around eating disorders.