Project HEAL and SEA WAVES Bridge Gaps in Access to Eating Disorder Care in the Military Community

Barriers to care for trans individuals seeking help for disordered eating run deep—ranging from a lack of affirming providers and gender-inclusive treatment spaces to stigma and misinformed assumptions about who struggles with eating disorders. Everyone deserves access to compassionate, inclusive care, but too often, these hurdles leave trans folks navigating healing alone.

Pervasive confusion and lack of information about ARFID may lead many people, like Gilchriest, to doubt if they really have an illness at all. But the truth is, ARFID is a very serious eating disorder, even though it can differ significantly from more well-known eating disorders, like anorexia and bulimia. Read on to learn why ARFID is absolutely an eating disorder—and how to advocate for proper treatment.

We’re thrilled to share that community care nonprofit Body Reborn & Project HEAL are joining efforts to expand access to eating disorder healing. Body Reborn founder Akiera Gilbert has been selected to be Project HEAL’s next CEO, with current CEO Rebecca Eyre staying on as an advisor. Three of Body Reborn’s Board Directors will also be joining Project HEAL’s board, and Project HEAL will be providing Body Reborn’s signature community care programming for BIPOC.

Insurance is failing millions of Americans, especially those with eating disorders. Alexa Grayson, Insurance Navigation Program Manager at Project HEAL shares in detail the barriers and insurance obstacles individuals encounter when seeking eating disorder treatment and how insurance fails to help people heal from their eating disorders.

Project HEAL’s CEO, Rebecca Eyre, offers her personal perspective on eating disorder field leadership, what’s happening at NEDA, and her commitment to ensuring Project HEAL lives up to its values.

As the Collaborative of Eating Disorders Organizations (CEDO), we are disappointed by the recent statement released by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). Their statement expressed concern about - but notably did not oppose - the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) new guidelines for treating childhood “obesity,” which recommend extreme weight loss measures like medication and bariatric surgery for children as young as 12 and 13 years old.

As a member of the Collaborative of Eating Disorders Organizations (CEDO), Project HEAL strongly opposes the new clinical guidelines introduced by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We do not support intentional weight loss in children via the methods included in the guidelines, especially the recommendation of bariatric surgery and pharmaceutical products for children.

Read about Project HEAL in 2022 from our CEO Rebecca Eyre

In our third year of partnership, Undone Beauty and Project HEAL have teamed up to spread awareness of eating disorders and Project HEAL’s services in the month of September. Join us as we break the mold together, focusing on undoing beauty standards and replacing them with knowledge about how we can all, as individuals and as organizations, support increased access to eating disorder healing.

In honor of National Pride Month (June), Project HEAL is expanding the eating disorder conversation to include more LGBTQ+ voices. The week of June 27, we will be hosting different high-impact conversations each day on Instagram Live, amplifying a variety of LGBTQ+ stories aimed at raising awareness and creating a safe space for both learning and healing.

This year, Project HEAL is excited to be celebrating 14 years of operation - or our 14th Birthday, as we like to call it. In May 2008, Liana Rosenman and Kristina Saffran - two teenagers who met in treatment for their own eating disorders - founded a nonprofit called Project HEAL in response to the inequities in access to treatment they had witnessed firsthand. What started as a passion project has become one of the leading eating disorder nonprofits in the U.S. providing direct service, education, research and advocacy for thousands of people a year.

Project HEAL, the leading nonprofit in the U.S. focused on equitable access to eating disorder treatment and long-term healing, is proud to announce the launch of its new Clinical Assessment Program that will help to solve the alarming need for accessible and inclusive diagnostic tools for all patients and professionals in the eating disorder field.

As we come to the end of 2021, our CEO, Rebecca Eyre, wanted to share an overview of what Project HEAL was able to accomplish this year, thanks to the incredible support of our community.

Every year, Project HEAL sets aside the first week of October to raise funds for a specific project or initiative that is attuned to the most urgent needs of the eating disorder community. This year, we are fundraising for our 2022 Cash Assistance Program.

Project HEAL CEO, Rebecca Eyre, shares more about how you can make a huge impact in people’s lives this week!

In honor of BIPOC Mental Health Month, Project HEAL’s CEO reflects back on a year of learning and action following our pledges in the summer of 2020 to do better for the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in the eating disorder community. Here, Rebecca “shows our receipts” so that we may remain accountable for the work we promised to do and continue to do.

Through Equipped to HEAL, Equip will be providing free treatment to at least five Project HEAL beneficiaries per year whose family is low-income or facing extenuating financial circumstances; experiencing medical or social discrimination related to their identity or appearance; and don’t currently have quality eating disorder treatment options through an insurance provider.

For me, Pride means belonging to a community, it means creating more space for healing, and it means bravely and openly being myself.

At Project HEAL, Pride isn't an exclusive celebration just for people who belong to the LGBTQ+ community. The simple fact is that the eating disorder recovery community includes a lot of LGBTQ+ people and we have to make the recovery community safer for them.

Thirteen years ago, then-teenagers Liana Rosenman and Kristina Saffran got an incredible gift for their May 4 and May 8 birthdays (respectively). They received the 501(c)3 certificate of incorporation for their own nonprofit.