Grant Enhances Multicultural Care for Youth Navigating Eating Disorders

A generous grant will help Children's National Hospital treat more young people with eating disorders.

 

The Founders Auxiliary Board’s award will allow the Donald Delaney Eating Disorders Clinic to improve services for Spanish-speaking and low-income patients. 

 

Post-pandemic, there is a rise in severe body image and eating disorders among young people, with some patients as young as 8 years old.

 

“Right now, we have enormous gaps when it comes to delivering multicultural care. This grant will help us provide the care our patients deserve,” says Anisha Abraham, MD, chief of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.

 

The board's funding will assist Spanish speakers by providing bilingual care coordination, family therapy and parent support groups. It also will supply nutritious foods, supplements, assessment tools and transportation and financial assistance. 

 

“If patients get the highest level of multidisciplinary care the first time they are admitted, they are more likely to succeed,” Dr. Abraham says. “This grant will go a long way to ensuring that more patients do well from day one.” 

 

The clinic helps hundreds of patients each year with their medical, social, and psychological needs. It has a waiting list of hundreds more.

 

Children’s National is one of the few places in the country that provides this comprehensive, family-centered care. 

 

Martha Perry, MD, medical director of the Eating Disorders Clinic, says, “We aim to revolutionize eating disorder care. We want to be more inclusive of all the ways eating disorders can present and to ensure that recommendations are shared with families in culturally relevant ways.”

 

The clinic team will use the grant to seek more funding. "We are grateful for this support from the Founders Auxiliary Board," says Dr. Perry. "We believe other institutions will see this work as a model."