Virtual Eating Disorder Treatment

Eating disorder treatment, like so many elements of health care, has adopted the virtual treatment model wholeheartedly. Virtual treatment programs, virtual meal support and access to care all around the country are increasingly prevalent and accepted. State licensing programs and insurance coverage are reassessing previous regulations. The lack of access to eating disorder care throughout the country is a relic of the past.

Virtual treatment was present before the pandemic and has taken on an ever increasing share of overall clinical care. The treatment community is in the process of transforming the care we provide and adapting effective methods to remote work.

The overall benefit of virtual care is straightforward. Most important is access to care throughout the country. Remote and rural areas used to have no care for eating disorders. That issue is in the past.

In addition, skipping or missing appointments is much less common so clinical treatment can be much more consistent. Moreover, virtual contact between appointments, important for many stages of recovery, is easily embedded into virtual care.

The potential pitfalls of virtual care are less obvious and important for the clinical eating disorders world to grapple with.

First, the screens create not only a physical distance but also an emotional one. The connection between clinician and patient is so important for recovery as I have written about extensively here. Developing that therapeutic bond is harder virtually. The screen creates distance that sometimes can be hard to cross.

Second, it’s easy for people to hide online on many different ways: hiding food, hiding feelings, hiding fears. Bridging the virtual gap is always possible and demands a different way of approaching treatment, an added vigilance of the clinician and increased awareness to piece together clues that are often more obvious in person.

I strongly advocate for virtual treatment and am positive the increased access, no matter the platform, will be beneficial for many people. In trying to explain some of the benefits and pitfalls, I hope the treatment community continues to figure out the best ways to make virtual care effective.