NEDA TOOLKIT for Parents
The NEDA Educational Toolkits Story
The Background
When a friend or family member is diagnosed with an
eating disorder, it’s often terrifying and confusing. How
did this happen to our family? Is my child going to be
okay? Will my friend ever get better? It’s all too easy to
get tangled in these questions and become mentally
trapped, paralyzed with fear and unable to help
yourself — or your loved one.
Of course, no toolkit, no matter how thorough, could
possibly address the diverse range of issues that are
unique to each individual and family. Instead, our
goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of eating
disorders and treatment in one easy-to-use document.
We have provided resources for more in-depth
information that may address these unique issues.
Helping your loved one recover from an eating disorder
will take a lot of work from everyone involved. As
with many jobs, having the right tools is crucial. Eating
disorders have a steep learning curve, and you and your
family member will need to develop lots of tools to
work towards recovery.
Our goal is to maintain the usefulness of the toolkits
by treating them as ever-evolving documents. We will
continue reviewing and revising them, adding the most
up-to-date research and information. NEDA’s clinical
advisors will be the primary reviewers, along with other
experts and stakeholders invited by NEDA, including
families and members of professional organizations that
will be disseminating the toolkits. If you have suggestions
for improvement, we want to hear from you!
The NEDA Parent Toolkit was created to provide some
of these tools that can be used in critical moments in
your search for help, hope and healing. As one parent
told us, “this toolkit was exactly the resource we
needed when we started the journey for our family, we
needed real resources, reassurance that we were not
the only family with the challenge and that there would
be light at the end of that tunnel.” The toolkits are
designed to put crucial information at your fingertips
and offer your family a range of ideas on how to best
help your loved one recover from an eating disorder.
Some of the questions you might find answered in the
following pages are:
• What are eating disorders and how are they
treated? • What are signs of a medical or psychiatric
emergency? • How do I deal with school issues while my child
is ill?
• What types of treatment are available?
• How do I know what type of treatment will work
best? • How do I get my insurance company to cover my
loved one’s treatment?
A Brief History of the Toolkits
In September 2007 the Board of Directors of NEDA
officially approved the organization’s new strategic
priorities, listing educational toolkits as a new NEDA
priority fitting the new mission: “To support those
affected by eating disorders and be a catalyst for
prevention, cures, and access to quality care.”
Educational Toolkits were created to strengthen
NEDA’s online material offerings and provide vital
information to targeted audiences. A list of audiences
was prioritized by the board and serves as a reference
for ongoing materials and toolkit development.
The toolkits were initially developed to combine
existing information with new findings to create a
complete package to assist individuals in their search
for information and help. They were meant to provide
guidance, not create standards of care, and would be
based on the best available information at the time of
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