Supporting Students with Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that impact many school-age youth. School psychologists are likely to encounter students with eating disorders. However, with limited training in this area, practitioners may feel intimidated about responding appropriately while practicing within the boundaries of their competence. Students and families deserve evidence-based care from highly trained specialists coupled with collaboration from school-based mental health care teams, especially because of the heightened mortality risk of eating disorders (Fichter & Quadflieg, 2016). This often means that the school-based mental health professional will not be the primary provider. Rather, schools can collaborate with comprehensive eating disorder centers or individual specialists to support care. This article presents lessons the authors learned from clinical experience as practitioners and provides recommendations for supporting students and families affected by disordered eating.