The KC Eating Disorder Clinic owned by Kaitlyn Cornell, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of KC Counseling, LLC, opened its doors at 313 N. Mattis Ave. in Champaign in October. 

The clinic is the first of its kind in central and southern Illinois, providing intensive outpatient care and partial hospitalization programs for people struggling with eating disorders. 

Cornell, a part-time instructor at the University, made the decision to start the specialized eating disorder clinic after watching patients repeatedly cycle in and out of residential care through her work with chronic and enduring eating disorders. 

“I really began to ask what is missing here,” Cornell said. “There is something different about this set of disorders, and starting the intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization program was really meant to treat chronic eating disorders with a different sort of framework, really targeting all the underlying issues that are propelling the eating disorder.”

The clinic offers intensive outpatient programming in which patients spend three to four hours of time at the clinic gaining meal support, taking part in the preparation of food, working with individual providers and engaging in group psychotherapy sessions. 

Partial hospitalization is a similar program for patients who need a higher level of care. Those patients spend longer hours at the clinic with more snack times and more group sessions incorporated into their treatment. 

“My goal is that someone comes into treatment and discharges back to outpatient care and never has to cycle back into a higher level of care,” Cornell said. 

Resources at current clinics and counseling centers in central Illinois are equipped to handle more mild to moderate disordered eating symptoms, including the University’s Counseling Center. 

Cornell’s eating disorder clinic creates a middle ground in which patients can receive care for more intense struggles without being hospitalized immediately. 

“Once a student comes in and we realize they are outside the scope of our services, there were limited options,” said Ian LeSueur, a clinical counselor at the University’s Counseling Center. “In the past, we have made the recommendation for hospitalization just because they need something, but there wasn’t that middle ground.”

Eating disorders are the second most lethal psychiatric condition to exist, impacting both the mental and physical health of sufferers. 

Physiological impacts can include arrhythmia and other cardiac conditions, cognitive decline, reduced bone health, osteoporosis, osteopenia, loss of menstrual cycles, dangerous electrolyte imbalances, increased irritation, enhanced anxiety and malnutrition. 

“Regular outpatient therapy is great, but for people whose medical stability is compromised because of their eating disorder — they really need this higher level of care programming,” Cornell said. 

Cornell explained that eating disorders are on the rise globally and have consistently increased within the early to mid-twenties age range. 

This is especially prevalent in college students who face academic and social pressures, social media and the search for belonging in a new space. 

“It’s kind of a perfect storm of a lot of things; it’s a high-stress environment,” LeSueur said. “If you’re a traditional college-age student you’re at a stage of identity development where you’re figuring yourself out.”

LeSueur also noted that students often feel more comfortable talking about other mental health struggles like anxiety and depression than they do talking about eating disorders, highlighting the extreme stigma that exists around disordered eating. 

The clinic’s high-intensity programming also focuses on allowing patients total autonomy over their treatment. 

“You can discharge at any time you want,” Cornell said. “You could show up and leave halfway through your very first assessment appointment. You are really the one who drives your treatment.”

Cornell also emphasized that her own history with eating disorders has influenced the programming offered at the clinic. 

“It’s something that offers a level of empathy and unconditional positive regard for working with patients,” Cornell said. “If you’ve experienced it yourself, you just fundamentally understand the difficulties they’re going through.”

The clinic also engages widely with community outreach programs, hoping to increase knowledge on eating disorders. 

Cornell said they provide information on how to assess a patient for eating disorders, types of questions to ask, some of the neurobiology behind the condition and how to decide if a patient needs a higher level of care. 

The opening of the KC Eating Disorder Clinic has received widespread praise, according to Cornell. 

“I’m really excited,” LeSueur said. “I think that it has been a big gap in our community.”

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