"Reach out to more professionals" 
 
 
Carla Slawson, Executive Director of the Academy for Eating Disorders, AED
 
 
Last week you held your International Conference in Eating Disorders (ICED). Are Eating Disorders a rising issue?
Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses. Eating disorders are not choices, passing fads or phases, and they can be severe and even fatal. Our international conference held last week in Montreal attended by close to 1,000 eating disorder professionals showcases the commitment by medical and health professionals around the globe to connect and collaborate to implement the best research and treatment methods possible to improve the health and quality of life for those patients and families in need.
 
 
Why should everybody care?
The quality of life for anyone with an eating disorder can be severely impaired. In fact, up to 10% of women with anorexia nervosa may die due to anorexia-related causes. And health consequences such as osteoporosis, gastrointestinal complications, and dental problems are often significant health and financial burdens throughout life as a result of eating disorders, in addition to the emotional and social distress that is often a component in these disorders.
 
Additionally, there is often a tremendous burden on the families of those who are afflicted by eating disorders, often as great as or greater than that from other mental illnesses.
 
Furthermore, eating disorders are complex and are influenced by both genetic and environmental (i.e., pressure to be thin, trauma, etc.) factors. Eating disorders are not simply caused by Western cultural values of thinness although those factors are operative.
 
While the current Western obsession with slimness and the glamorous portrayal of emaciated women in the media may play a role in the recent increase of eating disorders, genetic vulnerability, personality, psychological and environmental factors all contribute to the causes of eating disorders.
 
 
How important is the annual meeting for the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED)?
This ICED conference plays a critical role in AED‘s mission of connecting professionals, both clinicians and researchers, to collaborate and inspire one another on the latest breakthroughs in integrating research and practice. Additionally, the ICED conference features some of the best speakers – researchers and clinicians – across the globe on critical and important eating-related topics.
 
 
Why did you choose Montreal for ICED 2013?
As you’ve noted, AED is a global professional association. Montreal is a gorgeous international, multi-lingual city – attractive to people from around the world – and is also a leading research centre and home to an important eating disorder treatment center with dedicated professionals making a difference in this field.
 
AED has also developed collaborations through a sisterhood and affiliated chapter network as a way of enhancing our global reach. These factors led us to choose this wonderful international city for our ICED 2013 conference.
 
 
Do you use social media to get in touch with your audience?
Yes, AED continues to increase its use of social media tools in numerous ways. AED members are extremely active in their use of the member-only Listserve. Additionally, AED has active participation on its LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter accounts.
 
In fact, just this year, AED launched three TweetChats on specific eating disorder topics (including males and eating disorders and eating disorders in mid-life) that engaged professionals from around the globe in live back-and-forth sessions.
 
Additionally, at our Montreal conference this year, we hosted our 2nd annual plenary presentation on the use of social media for good and for ill in the field of eating disorders. Also several sessions featured live tweets from the audience in response to speaker debate.
 
 
What are the main two challenges for the Academy for Eating Disorders these days?
As the largest multi-disciplinary professional society in the eating disorders field, AED balances the need to maintain its current sense of member connectedness and engagement (currently one of the most member-active associations in related fields) and its need to reach out to more professionals to further its mission, both to educate these professionals and to encourage greater participation in this multi-disciplinary field.
 
Founded in 1993, the AED has grown to include more than 1,500 members worldwide who are working to prevent and treat eating disorders. Such growth requires increasingly sophisticated methods to develop, manage and distribute cutting-edge professional training and education, advance new developments in eating disorders research, prevention and clinical treatments, and advocate for the rights of people with eating disorders and their caregivers. AED is currently focusing on best management and governance practices to further the implementation of its crucial mission.
 
 
The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) is the largest multi-disciplinary professional society in the eating disorders field. Founded in 1993, the AED has grown to include more than 1,500 members worldwide who are working to prevent and treat eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. The AED provides cutting-edge professional training and education; advances new developments in eating disorders research, prevention and clinical treatments; and advocates for the rights of people with eating disorders and their caregivers.The 2013 International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED) took place from 2 to 4 May at the Hilton Montréal Bonaventure, Montréal, Québec, Canada. w w w. aedweb. org