Patient Perspectives in Research and Treatment for Atypical Anorexia: Evidence for Weight-Inclusive Care with Erin Harrop, LICSW, PhD

Summary: Drawing on personal experience, the presenter will begin the presentation by describing their personal experience with both low-weight and higher-weight anorexia and how their eating disorder treatment experiences differed when their body presented differently. The presenter will also highlight examples from outpatient and higher levels of care to show how weight stigma manifested in their treatment experiences and the consequences of this stigma. Next, the presenter will provide a brief background on atypical anorexia, summarizing atypical anorexia literature findings from 2007-2021. Following this, the presenter will present study findings from a mixed methods study of a diverse sample of atypical anorexia patients. This presentation will end with a brief discussion of how to integrate weight-inclusive principles into eating disorder care to better serve patients in all bodies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to describe the prevalence of atypical anorexia compared to typical anorexia.

2. Participants will be able to identify three examples of how weight stigma impacts care of patients with higher weight anorexia.

3. Participants will be able to describe three recommendations to help eating disorder treatment settings be more inclusive for people with eating disorders of all sizes.

1.5 Education Credits pending for therapist and dietitians. Attendees must attend the live event and submit the post test to receive the CE certificate.

This event will be recorded and the recording will be emailed out to all attendees after the event.

Speaker Bio: Erin (they/them) Harrop, LICSW, PhD is an assistant professor at University of Denver. Having spent seven years working as a medical social worker at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Erin approaches their eating disorders research from a clinical practice, Health at Every Size®, and patient-centered lens. Erin’s dissertation featured a mixed methods longitudinal study of individuals with a history of atypical anorexia. Erin’s clinical work also involves training at the provider level, introducing interprofessional clinicians to weight-inclusive practices that honor patient’s unique intersecting identities.