PUBLISHED research STUDIES
Project HEAL & F.E.A.S.T. Report on Primary Caregiver Peer Support
In partnership with our friends at F.E.A.S.T., Project HEAL initiated a comprehensive survey and stakeholder interviews of primary caregivers of people with eating disorders in the fall of 2019. In June 2020, the full study’s report was released highlighting the importance of strong support systems for people in recovery.
Peer Mentorship as an Adjunct Intervention for the Treatment of Eating Disorders
Peer mentorship has been shown to be helpful for other mental health conditions, but it has been understudied for patients with eating disorders. The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of peer mentorship for individuals with eating disorders. Project HEAL partnered with Columbia University to conduct this study, which demonstrated that peer support was effective in reducing body dissatisfaction, depression, and anxiety, as well as restricting and bingeing behaviors. This study helped validate what we’ve heard hundreds of times from recovered people: the thing that makes the biggest difference is being in community with other people who’ve been there.
Barriers to treatment access study
Eating Disorder Treatment Access in the United States: Perceived Inequities Among Treatment Seekers
Over the course of four years, Project HEAL partnered with Eating Anxiety Treatment Laboratory & Clinic (EAT Lab) at The University of Louisville to assess the extensive treatment barriers that exist for people with eating disorders through our Barriers to Treatment Access (BTA) Study. The study’s objective was to comprehensively assessed treatment access for those with these disorders in the United States. The authors examined access to eating disorder treatments and how it might vary among some populations.