Letter to the Editor | Eating disorder resources on campus
The McKinley Health Center is located in the south east part of campus on Lincoln Avenue. The center provides a dietitian who oversees nutrition programming focused on unhealthy relationships with food and bodies for students.
July 19, 2022
Your post in The Daily Illini back in April was a great insight into how diet culture negatively affects students in Greek life. We know that a college campus alone is a triggering setting to compare yourself and your body, and being in a sorority can exaggerate that even more. Research shows eating disorders are not uncommon on a college campuses, and we recognize the need to address them. Thank you for writing this article and bringing forward awareness about this important topic.
I would like to share some resources that UIUC college students have access to on campus:
McKinley Health Center’s dietitian, in the Health Education Unit, oversees nutrition programming that is focused on educating students about unhealthy relationships with food and their bodies. Peer-led workshops can start conversations to cultivate change in a setting that is promoting diet culture. We have been highly successful in leading these discussions in sororities that we have been invited into in the past.
Workshops can be requested through McKinley’s website. We hope to increase our resources and collaborative efforts within Greek life. In addition to the resources shared in our outreach programs, students can schedule one on one sessions with a McKinley Dietitian by calling the Health Education unit at 217-333-2714.
McKinley and the Counseling Center collaborate on an Eating Disorder Treatment Team that is composed of therapists, dietitians and physicians to provide students with eating disorders a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary care team.
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The Counseling Center offers a number of clinical services including ED assessments, short-term individual counseling, and a disordered eating and body image process group as well as a semi-structured skills-based group. The Counseling Center is also active in providing workshops and outreaches to raise awareness on body image and disordered eating and will be offering the EVERYbody project workshop starting this Fall.
For more information, you can go to counselingcenter.illinois.edu or call for additional information at 217-333-3704.
Thank you so much for bringing awareness to a topic that we are so passionate about helping.
