By Nicole Patience, MS., RD, LDN, CDE, CEDS
World Eating Disorder Action Day is an invitation for us to collectively acknowledge the harm and health burden of disordered eating behaviors in individuals and our wider world.
The beauty of an action day is that you decide for yourself the form of advocacy and action you would like to take.
Actions could include activism as local as pointing out fat-talk or body shaming language when meeting up with friends or on social media. It could be a dietitian choosing to start confidential professional supervision to offer a reflective process in their work with people with disordered eating.
It could be as broad in scope as writing a letter to an elected official to support policy change and to promote improved coverage for higher levels of care for eating disorder treatment. It could also be a letter to your insurance company to request improved insurance reimbursement rates for dietitians (improved insurance reimbursement rates would increase the number of RDs on insurance panels, increasing access to care for more people).
By taking local, national, or international action, we as a community can elevate world-wide awareness and promote treatment access across nations and continents.
Here is more information about the global movement of World Eating Disorder Action Day.
Here are some organizations that offer additional information and support around the topic of eating disorders:
- Multi-disciplinary Eating Disorder Association
- National Eating Disorders Association
- Eating Disorder Hope
We all have much to gain from working together to promote improved awareness, access to treatment, and lasting recovery from eating disorders.