Policy Issue Brief

The issue:

Many people across America have heard the term “eating disorder,” but not many people know what this means or what kind of problems this community faces. Eating disorders are much more common than many realize. Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents (Eating Disorder Facts and Statistics para. 1). In addition, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any other mental illness with around one person dying every hour as a result of an eating disorder (Eating Disorder Facts and Statistics para. 1). One of the most striking things about eating disorders and their treatment is that over 70% of those who could be clinically diagnosed with eating disorders will never seek professional treatment because of stigmas, misconceptions and an overall lack of education (Eating Disorder Facts and Statistics para. 1). The public is generally unaware of such startling statistics, or of the overall prevalence of eating disorders in society. This additionally means most people are not aware of the need for research on eating disorders to better diagnose and treat those afflicted and educate the public. There is clear need to accelerate research in this field as the “causes, risk factors, brain changes and other biological abnormalities in eating disorders is unclear” (Research para. 1). If more research can be done on this topic eating disorders may become preventable and recoverable

Causes:

The cause of this lack of research leading to inadequate education, diagnosis and treatment has an inadvertent cause. Society is unaware that eating disorders are a big issue and require more research. Our society still knows very little about eating disorders as it was not until 1983 when Karen Carpenter died from anorexia that it became something people even talked about (Ekern para 1). Much of the inadvertent cause comes from the fact that government funding for eating disorders is incredibly low compared to other issues that are “not as pervasive nor as fatal as eating disorders.” (Ekren para 3) The US government funds only 28 million dollars a year to eating disorder research which is about 93 cents for each person diagnosed with an eating disorder (Ekern para 3). This is compared to alcoholism which receives 505 million dollars, schizophrenia with 352 million, depression with 328 million and sleep disorders with 187 million (Ekern para 4).

Policy instruments:

A policy instrument that would be used to increase the funding for eating disorder research would be inducements in the form of increased pubic funding. While it would be nice to think that the federal government would increase their funding for such topics, it is also widely known that this may be a difficult institution to target for increased funding. Breaking it down to a state-by-state basis and having states provide an increase in funding would be much more effective. One of the reasons why targeting states may be more effective, especially in Pennsylvania, is that there is more of an interest in the subject. In Pennsylvania, the Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, previously worked as chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital (University of the Sciences para. 6). This unique circumstance of Pennsylvania’s leadership makes the state government an ideal place to direct funding incentives. Institutions such as the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) have been directing their advocacy projects towards state and federal governments to attempt an increase in funding for research.

Works cited:

Ekern, Baxter. “Funding for Eating Disorder Professionals Seeking to Do Research.” Eating Disorder Hope, 25 July 2015, http://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/funding-for-eating-disorder-professionals-seeking-to-do-research.

 

“Eating Disorder Facts & Statistics.” Eating Disorder Facts & Eating Disorder Statistics | Eating Recovery Center, http://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com/conditions/eating-disorders/facts-statistics.

 

“Research.” FREED, 20 Feb. 2018, http://www.freedeatingdisorders.org/research/.

 

“Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine to Address 2019 Graduates at Commencement.” University of the Sciences, 1 Apr. 2019, http://www.usciences.edu/news/2019/secretary-of-health-dr-rachel-levine-to-address-2019-graduates-at-commencement.html.

2 Comments on Policy Issue Brief

  1. Parth Sachar
    April 1, 2020 at 3:50 pm (5 years ago)

    I think you have a solid case for your issue brief. Definitely sounds like a major issue that needs attention and policy. This could be a great paper if you perhaps take some stance and represent some think tank, although that’s not required. The causes and the policy instruments are appropriate for this issue and I think if you go more in detail when you say more public funding would add even more specificity to the paper and narrow your focus. Great topic and I think your exigence is well warranted.

    Reply
  2. hjt5146
    April 1, 2020 at 6:58 pm (5 years ago)

    I believe this is a great topic to focus on because it certainly has exigence and, as you said, many people are uneducated about the topic. I think that could you focus on Pennsylvania, but then in the conclusion expand it to the entire country and see how taking Pennsylvania as a model can help. I’d be interested to see how you reallocate the money to provide funding for this research/treatment. Overall, this is a great topic with many different avenues to explore.

    Reply

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