Peer Support: A Nontraditional Treatment Addition for People with Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are an important public health issue because there is limited accessibility to diagnosis and treatment and a lack of understanding and awareness from the public, healthcare professionals, and policymakers. Eating disorders are serious and complex mental illnesses with a variety of different diagnoses. In the peer support intervention model, an individual well into recovery guides another individual who is beginning the recovery process by offering emotional support, access to recovery resources, practical recovery tips and advice, and most importantly, a listening ear. Peer support has the potential to mitigate disparities in eating disorder treatment, encourage and reinforce recovery, and prevent relapse when used as an addition to typical treatment methods. Very little is known about peer support for people with eating disorders, but there is significant research on the benefits of its use with other mental health conditions, making it a promising addition to standard treatment methods for people with eating disorders. This paper argues the position that peer support is a valid treatment addition for people with eating disorders and that peer supporters should be integrated into eating disorder treatment teams. Information regarding the current landscape of eating disorders, the treatment standards and eating disorder recovery will be discussed. Peer support and its history, mechanisms and uses will also be discussed. Lastly, the application of the information discussed will be used to argue the addition and integration of peer support to treatment teams for people with eating disorders.