In my 20 plus years of experience working in this area—formerly as the manager of the National Eating Disorder Information Centre in the late eighties and early nineties; later as a clinician at Women’s College Hospital, where I worked with women who were struggling with a full range of food, weight, and body-image issues; and now as a researcher—I have been in contact with hundreds of individuals, family members, and health providers dealing with these problems.
While I've witnessed many changes in the delivery of services over this period—more changes in service delivery than in treatment modalities—one thing has remained constant and that is the “revolving door” scenario in which many individuals cycle in and out of treatment without finding solutions. Many families and friends still feel helpless in the face of these complex concerns. Caregiver burden is high even though caregivers are resilient and desire the best for their loved ones.
As the existence of this study shows, there's a growing interest in developing federal policy in support of eating disorder prevention and treatment in Canada and we fully support this development. We are here today to advocate for a strategy that acknowledges, honours, and welcomes in individuals’ complex lived experiences of eating disorders. We want a case for centring those experiences in any strategy.