by La-Shell Johnson, Program Coordinator

Although this year has been fraught with unprecedented changes, the National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (NCEED) remains committed to developing and disseminating content that will meet the educational needs of those in the eating disorder community.

Now in its second year, NCEED has:

• Launched its Training Center and Resource Library. The Training Center currently houses several webinars focused on treating patients with eating disorders in a primary care setting. Each webinar is FREE of charge and offers FREE continuing education credits! The Resource Library has also undergone reorganization to make it more user-friendly and includes newly enhanced filtering capabilities.
• Maintained its social media presence and expanded its reach by continuing to share educational content via NCEED’s social media platforms on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• Facilitated collaboration and built partnerships with several organizations including, the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), Project Heal, and the Academy for Eating Disorders. These key relationships have allowed NCEED to ensure widespread dissemination of educational and training offerings.
• Increased its presence in traditional media through interviews and presentations conducted by NCEED Leadership and Content Experts (see interview here).

As the current circumstances and needs of our community continue to change, NCEED remains proactive in addressing the unique needs of its stakeholders by providing resources in specific content areas. As alluded to in a recent blog post by Dr. Bulik, NCEED partnered with the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders and Rivierduinen Eating Disorders Ursula, Leiden, The Netherlands on a research study titled, “Early Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals with Eating Disorders: A survey of ~1000 Individuals in the United States and the Netherlands.” This meaningful collaboration delivered crucial data about how COVID-19 is impacting those with eating disorders, and also provided guidance to healthcare providers who are providing care during a global pandemic. The first round of data is now available and has been published in a pre-print archive in an effort to rapidly disseminate the initial results. NCEED has also developed two standalone documents that summarize the initial findings: one for healthcare providers and one for individuals/families. Although preliminary, these data are the first of their kind to shed light on the needs of those with eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to these efforts, NCEED created a COVID-19-specific resource library with resources that focus on eating disorders; however, many also focus on more general mental health and stress management.

NCEED is also committed to combating old stereotypes about eating disorders and reminds everyone that eating disorders do not discriminate based on race or ethnicity. Though minority groups have been understudied within the eating disorders field, we are now learning about how best to provide care to underserved patients through current, leading-edge research, some of which is being conducted by NCEED’s own Dr. Rachel Goode, Dr. Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodríguez, the Harvard-based STRIPED Initiative, and the Mayo Clinic. Our hope is that results gathered from these studies will continue to improve eating disorder treatment and care for minority communities.

We are excited about the advancements made by NCEED, and we look forward to showing you what’s in store. Stay tuned for upcoming events, new training opportunities, and website developments by signing up for our newsletter at www.nceedus.org!