CLINICAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM
Project HEAL provides free, impartial, culturally-competent, and compassionate 1-hour phone assessments to anyone in the U.S. who believes they (or their child) might have an eating disorder. They will receive comprehensive 8+ page document with diagnosis, treatment recommendation, and referrals. We will also offer enrollment to one of our other three programs if applicable.
Project HEAL’s Clinical Assessment Program operates on several foundational principles that uniquely highlight our ability to support mental health in marginalized communities: accessibility, harm reduction, and cultural competency and humility. Our program is designed to provide eating disorder assessments, diagnoses, and referrals to anyone in the US over the age of 12* for free, via video or audio.
*For people aged 12-17, we will provide eating disorder assessments as long as a parent or guardian is able to consent. In states where minors are able to provide consent to their own mental health treatment, parental or guardian consent is not necessary for the assessment.
access to diagnosis is one of the largest barriers to eating disorder healing.
As it stands, access to eating disorder diagnosis is a privilege. Research shows that eating disorders go undiagnosed at staggering rates, especially in BIPOC, Fat, Trans, Disabled, low-income, and/or undocumented individuals. Any of these identities combined worsens ones chances of being seen and appropriately diagnosed exponentially.
Because of these realities, receiving an eating disorder diagnosis - the seemingly simple first step on an admittedly arduous journey of healing - is often unacceptably difficult.
Project HEAL wants to change that and make diagnosis accessible to all.
How to know if a Clinical Assessment is right for you:
You have never received an official eating disorder diagnosis, or it has been many years since an initial diagnosis was made
You know you need/want help but you aren’t sure where to start
You are unsure as to which level of care would be appropriate for you
You have been told you need an official assessment completed before beginning the treatment of your choice
What a beneficiary said about their clinical assessment at project heal:
"As a Black Woman who lived in secrecy with an eating disorder for over 16 years due to the racial disparities and limited access to culturally competent unbiased medical and ED care, for people who looked like me, meeting and being assessed by Project HEAL was just the beginning my healing journey so desperately yearned for. The compassion and competency shown during my assessment is a gift that I have been unable to put a price tag on. My relationship with food, my body and my brain is forever changed for the better. My hope and manifestation is that Project HEAL's reach continues to spread long and wide especially for those marginalized and forgotten in the ED field."
- Clinical Assessment Recipient, Houston, TX