Status of Women committee  Yes. There needs to be an awareness campaign that is visible, that is not hidden. Eating disorders are hidden. Especially, unfortunately for somebody like Amy was in the beginning, with anorexia, you can see somebody who looks anorexic by the physical look of their bodies, but

Status of Women committee  Amy is on Ontario disability and obviously, that is a limited amount. Even though she actually does get a bit more because she has an eating disorder, with the kind of money that she's given, unless she's living in a hole, honestly, she would not have any money to come out on. Ev

Status of Women committee  What I've been trying to do with awareness.... If families were more aware of what goes on.... A lot of the time, and it certainly happened to us as well, in the beginning, it's such a secretive disease. We didn't keep it a secret, but we did not want Amy to be labelled. I didn't

Status of Women committee  Yes, initially my husband and I totally had those guilt feelings: what did we do wrong; what did we say? I think the best advice I can give to any parent is that if your child does not want help, you need the help. This is not something the parents have done or not done. I'm no

Status of Women committee  Honestly, I think it's understanding from the majority. I think people over the years, even my close family—I hate to say that, but it's true—just aren't aware. They get fed up or they've had enough or they don't want to hear me talking about it anymore, so I just let it be. We h

Status of Women committee  In the very beginning, we only found out that Amy was actually throwing away her school lunch when a friend came to tell us. She was 16. I guess at that point she was on the cusp of being admitted into hospital or not. I think initially we were so completely naive and green and

Status of Women committee  Okay. We totally support the recommendations put forward by the doctors. As parents we want access to treatment by properly trained professionals in a timely manner. Creation of group homes, places of safety the same as provided for substance abuse, alcoholism, and drug abuse;

Status of Women committee  Hello everybody. As the founder of NIED, the National Initiative for Eating Disorders, I would like to thank the committee for taking on this study of eating disorders among girls and women. I am here today to speak on behalf of hundreds and thousands of moms and dads, caregiver