Navigating challenges to providing eating disorder support in collegiate recovery programs

Abstract

There is a significant need for eating disorder support on college campuses. Collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) are providing specialized support for students in recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs) but struggle to support students with eating disorders, despite the high co-occurring rates of SUDs and eating disorders. This is a brief report describing Texas Tech University’s experience in delivering eating disorder support in their CRP, outlining the challenges they have recognized, and providing recommendations and resources for overcoming them.

Keywords:

• Collegiate recovery program
• eating disorder recovery
• peer support
• recovery culture
• recovery language
• substance use disorder recovery

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America, and the writing of this report did not require the approval from the Institutional Review Board of Texas Tech University.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.