Ready To Get Involved? Consider Lobbying For ED Policy

Anyone touched by an eating disorder knows what it is like to feel powerless. Whether you are in recovery from an ED or you have a loved one (or lost a loved one) to the ED, you have undoubtedly wanted to do something – anything to change yourself, change the situation, and the change the world in which we live.

If you’re healthy enough to look outside your own recovery, consider getting involved in non-profit group that works to make a difference.

The Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action promotes the recognition of eating disorders as a policy concern. It is for everyone who is alarmed by the prominence and danger of eating disorders, but is unaware of what can be done to change it. We can ask our government to help create actual policies that will translate into advancing the goal of eating disorder prevention and recovery.

The Eating Disorders Coalition has educated Congress via lobby days, with the most recent EDC Lobby Day bringing in eighty advocates to Washington, D.C. The participants lobbied for mental health parity, and discussed the upcoming proposal of the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders Act (FREED Act).

The Eating Disorders Coalition is requesting more research funds for eating disorders, mental health parity, increase in education for health providers, and more accessible access to treatment. The concerns of eating disordered individuals, their families and friends, are represented by the Eating Disorders Coalition in the form of policy.

NIMH estimates that currently only $21 million is spent on eating disorder research by the federal government.

http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org