NEDA TOOLKIT for Parents
The NEDA Educational Toolkits Story
The background
Parents and Educators...the starting point
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
Using the core questions we decided the Parent and
Educators Toolkits would be created first. Additional
target audiences will include Coaches and Trainers,
Health Care Providers, and Individual Patients. We then
hired ECRI Institute, a recognized expert in providing
publications, information and consulting services
internationally for healthcare assessments. Their ability
to translate work on behalf of the eating disorders
community into useful, real world tools established an
excellent partnership for creating the content of the
toolkits. “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
existing materials and provide vital information to
targeted audiences. A list of audiences was prioritized
by the board and acts as a reference for ongoing
materials and toolkit development.
The toolkit concept
The initial concept of the toolkits was to tie together
existing information along with the development of
new materials to create complete packages that would
help targeted audiences during critical moments in
their search for help, hope and healing. They are
intended for guidance, not for standards of care and
would be based on information available at the time of
development. Creation of the toolkits took thoughtful consideration.
We identified several key questions as we began
working on this project. First: “What is a NEDA
Educational Toolkit?” led us to ask ourselves these
questions: Who is the audience we are trying to reach?
How many different toolkits will we develop?
What should a toolkit contain?
How do we include our stakeholders in the
development of the toolkits?
How does our audience want to receive the toolkit
once it’s developed?
How do we market the toolkits?
What is the plan to revise and enhance the toolkits
over time?
Parents and Educators...the process
ECRI initially created two separate toolsets with a
consistent tone. We brought together two focus groups
to guide us in the types of information to be included
for each of the audiences – parents and educators.
ECRI conducted additional interviews with interested
elementary and high school teachers and families.
Next, ECRI researched and revised existing NEDA
educational materials and handouts (as needed) and
created new materials as appropriate for each kit. The
result was a draft set of “tools” for each toolkit. Some
basic information is common to each; other tools are
unique to each toolkit. As with all our materials, we
want to increase the outreach and support to our
constituents while providing reliable information to the
general public about the unique and complex nature of
eating disorders.
All focus groups agreed that an electronic toolkit,
accessible via the NEDA website, would be the easiest,
most up-to-date way to make the toolkits available.
NEDA researched and reviewed several online toolkits,
looking for the best elements of each that could be
used to inform the design concept. The final design
plan for the organization of each kit was created by
designer, David Owens Hastings. ECRI then produced
the final documents that are the body of each of the
first toolkits. The focus groups reviewed materials one
more time and made suggestions for revisions. Their
excellent edits and useful comments were integrated
into the drafts. Joel Yager, MD, and additional clinical
advisors were final reviewers on all documents. ECRI
then submitted the Toolkit documents to NEDA.
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