Blog Assignment 9

In the process of addressing the increased incidence of anorexia and bulimia nervosa, there are numerous stakeholders that would be affected. A stakeholder is a person, group, or organization that is impacted by the issue of eating disorders and would be impacted by an intervention.  Which stakeholders are specifically involved depends on the particular intervention that is designed to improve the issue. Possible interventions include an in school education campaign about eating disorders, school mandated quarterly physicals, and insurance covered therapy once diagnosed with the disorder.

In a school oriented education campaign, the signs, symptoms, and complications of eating disorders, as well as the importance of healthy eating habits and high self-esteem, would be promoted throughout the school. This could be done by monthly assemblies, morning media briefs, signs and posters throughout the school, after-school classes, and/or through clubs and organizations who go from class to class. In such an intervention, the stakeholders would include: the students, the school board, the teachers, school staff, as well as those who organize and implement the campaign. In order for a campaign to work in schools across the nation, students would need to get on board and be willing to participate. Students would be needed to distribute and post signs, to participate in a club that promotes eating disorder awareness, and would need to support a campaign for it to be effective. The school board and school staff would need to find such a campaign important enough to fund and to find time in a school schedule for it to be implemented. They might oppose such an intervention considering eating disorders are not extremely prevalent and a campaign would cost money and staffing. However, if the board could be convinced that the students would get on board and help spread awareness, they might be willing to adopt it. The organizers and creators of a campaign would need to design the most efficient way for students to be educated, and would be the ones entering schools and providing the assemblies and information that is to be taught.

Another intervention could be school mandated quarterly physicals, where the height and weight of each student is checked four times during the school year. By checking weight more frequently, an onset of an eating disorder can be more quickly diagnosed and thus stopped sooner. This intervention would affect the students, their parents, the school board, and the school staff. Students would have to be weighed more often and in a school setting, which might make some uncomfortable and annoyed. Parents, additionally, might oppose their kids being forced to undergo frequent weigh-ins, which they might deem unnecessary. To accommodate complaints, students and parents could be assured that the weights would be kept private so the students feel more comfortable. The school board would have to find a way to fund this as well as to make schools comply with it. They might oppose this simply because of the cost of funding, as they might not see it as worth the money since eating disorders are relatively rare. The staff of each individual school would need to hire a nursing staff, if not already present, and find a way to track and organize the physical of each student.

Lastly, an intervention that would take place after the diagnosis of an eating disorder could be the implementing of health insurance paid therapy for anorexic and bulimic patients. A patient suffering from an eating disorder needs to change their mental health before their physical health can improve. If not, they may relapse and continue down the disordered path. Since therapy is often very expensive and cannot be afforded by many, therapy sessions paid by the health insurance companies could improve how fast a patient recovers and reduce the likelihood of a relapse. Stakeholders would include the insurance companies, the therapists, and the patients. Insurance companies would have to find a way to cover therapy sessions, which would undoubtedly be a difficult task. They might oppose this because eating disorders occur in such a small percentage of people, and generally in adolescents who are not paying for their own insurance. Therapists would have to agree to a more likely lower cost of service, if the insurance companies were to come on board. The patients would have to be willing to take the time to attend these sessions as well as willing to be open minded in these sessions, as not to waste them. To accommodate all of these concerns, group therapy sessions could be conducted. This would produce a support team for patients, provide more payment for the therapists, and ease the cost by each individual’s insurance company.