Searching for the right eating disorder treatment program for your loved one can feel terrifying. Every option is overwhelming, and you second-guess every decision you make. Families often ask:
How serious are their symptoms?
Do we need a residential program?
Will outpatient treatment be enough?
What if we choose wrong?
The “right” program isn’t the most intensive one. It’s the one that matches your loved one’s eating disorder behaviors, psychiatric symptoms, medical risk, co-occurring concerns, and functioning — not just their diagnosis.
In today’s blog post, let’s explore how to find the right eating disorder treatment program for your loved one’s needs.
To start, it’s crucial to understand what actually determines the right level of care. Treatment recommendations are based on several key factors, including medical stability, eating disorder behaviors, emotional and psychiatric symptoms, daily functioning, and prior treatment history. Together, these considerations help clinicians assess the level of support needed to promote lasting recovery.
Medical Stability
Medical risk may require hospitalization or a higher level of care. Significant weight loss, abnormal labs, heart concerns, dizziness, fainting, and/or dehydration are all reasons for concern.
Eating Disorder Behaviors
Eating disorder behaviors may include restriction, binge eating, purging, compulsive movement, and/or the inability to complete meals. Here, behavior frequency and severity matter more than a diagnosis label.
Emotional and Psychiatric Symptoms
When it comes to finding the right eating disorder treatment program, it’s just as important to treat the psychological distress that often accompanies an eating disorder as it is to focus on the physical symptoms. Anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, emotional dysregulation, and suicidal ideation or self-harm are all common co-occurring conditions.
Daily Functioning
Beyond the eating disorder symptoms themselves, it’s important to consider how the individual is functioning in day-to-day life. School avoidance, work disruption, social withdrawal, family conflict, and difficulty managing daily responsibilities can all signal that a higher level of support may be needed. Even when medical stability is maintained, worsening impairment across these areas often indicates that outpatient treatment alone may no longer be sufficient to support meaningful recovery.
Prior Treatment History
Lastly, it’s important to look at prior treatment history. Sometimes, it’s not about whether treatment is needed but whether more support is needed. If outpatient care has been tried for an extended period of time with no results, it may be time to explore other options. Ask questions like:
Has outpatient treatment helped?
Is relapse occurring?
Has progress halted?
An important note for parents: Eating disorders don’t have to “look severe” to warrant treatment. Parents often minimize symptoms because their child “seems fine” or “eats sometimes,” believing it’s “just a phase.”
Instead, trust what you’re seeing. If you’re unsure where to start, an assessment can help clarify the best support for your child. Visit Alsana to learn more about our programs or connect with our admissions team.
Once you’ve identified your loved one’s needs, you need to understand the levels of care.
Outpatient Treatment
Outpatient treatment is best for patients who are medically stable and motivated for recovery. They have manageable symptoms and a strong support system at home. It’s critical to stay vigilant, as outpatient care may not be enough if symptoms intensify.
Intensive Outpatient Program
If more structure is needed, an intensive outpatient program (IOP) may be best. With this treatment, patients receive multiple therapeutic touchpoints per week with the continued ability to live at home. IOP is often a bridge between outpatient treatment and a partial hospitalization program (PHP).
Partial Hospitalization Program
PHP, then, is best for patients who are medically stable but clinically struggling. They require frequent therapeutic intervention as well as meal support. PHP serves as step-down care from residential or step-up care from outpatient.
Residential Treatment
Residential treatment may be the right fit when limited progress has been made at lower levels of care and around-the-clock therapeutic structure is needed. Here, patients experience severe behaviors that require full-time support.1
Inpatient Care
Inpatient or medical stabilization is best when acute medical or psychiatric safety concerns are present. This level of care focuses on stabilization, not full recovery treatment.
Now that you’ve determined the right level of care, there are important questions to ask any treatment program.
Is the team specialized in eating disorders?
Know that not all mental health programs are equipped to treat every diagnosis. Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that affect physical health, emotional well-being, relationships, identity, and daily functioning. Effective treatment requires specialized knowledge that extends beyond general mental health care.
Ask questions like:
- How many eating disorder patients does your team treat?
- What specialized training or certifications do clinicians hold?
- How do team members collaborate across disciplines?
- How is treatment individualized based on a patient’s unique recovery story?
What disciplines are involved in treatment?
Ideally, your loved one should be supported by a multidisciplinary team that includes eating disorder therapists, registered dietitians, medical providers, and psychiatric professionals who understand the unique challenges of recovery. The right treatment team should have the experience and compassion necessary to support your loved one through every chapter of recovery.
How are co-occurring conditions addressed?
Even if your loved one isn’t struggling with another mental health condition, it’s important to understand how a program handles issues like anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma, and substance use.
What treatment philosophies guide care?
Here, you want to know the differentiators that make a program the right fit. At Alsana, our Soul Hearted approach to evidence-based care includes individualized planning, whole-person treatment, and family involvement when appropriate.
What happens after discharge?
After your loved one completes a treatment program, it’s important to understand what’s next in their care, including step-down planning, relapse prevention, and alumni support.
Remember: Choosing an eating treatment program for your loved one is not a forever decision.
Treatment levels can change, and care often steps up or down based on individual needs. The goal is not to predict the entire recovery journey today. It’s to take the next clinically appropriate step — and you don’t have to take it alone. Contact our admissions team to learn more about the in-person and virtual eating disorder treatment options at Alsana.
Visit our website to learn more about our programs or to schedule an assessment for yourself or a loved one.
References
- Anderson LK, Reilly EE, Berner L, Wierenga CE, Jones MD, Brown TA, Kaye WH, Cusack A. Treating Eating Disorders at Higher Levels of Care: Overview and Challenges. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2017 Aug;19(8):48. doi: 10.1007/s11920-017-0796-4. PMID: 28653117.
