Eating disorders, school professionals, and understanding family theory

Eating disorders have substantially risen in school-aged youth, especially in a post-pandemic world. Impacting children and adolescents across races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations, prevalence rates suggest that eating disorders do not discriminate. Interestingly, despite the rising prevalence rates and increase of eating disorders, many school-based mental health providers feel ill-equipped to support children, adolescents, and their families seeking eating disorder treatment due to lack of knowledge or skill. Given the evidence-based focus on family-based treatment, many school-based providers wonder what is best approach to support individuals within a school-system, for how to best intertwine family-based recommendations and collaboration with relevant outside clinicians. Given this uncertainty, this piece explores the role of school-based mental health in supporting family-based treatment, exploring two prominent systems theories and how providers within schools can adopt these approaches to most ethically aid students within the bounds of competence within a school setting. School-based mental health practitioners benefit from increasing their awareness of the family-based roots in eating disorders. Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model and Family Systems Theory are two theories relevant for school practitioners in their conceptualization of school-based eating disorder care. School providers should we well-versed in related family-based eating disorder supports within their bounds of practice.