Beautiful Old Town Alexandria

Excitement is building and so are the registration numbers: F.E.A.S.T.'s first international event is set for historic Old Town Alexandria, right outside Washington DC, November 3 & 4, 2011. Confirmed speakers: Dr. James Lock, Stanord * Dr. Cynthia Bulik, UNC * Dr. Walter Kaye, UCSD * Dr. Julie O'Toole, Kartini * Kitty Westin, Emily Program * Susan Ringwood, Beat  * Jeanine Cogan, EDC * Darcy Gruttadaro, NAMI *  and Ruth Sullivan, co-Founder of the Autism Society of America. 

Family registration: $250 per person, General registration $350, Includes breakfast, lunch, and snacks as well as all events and access to the Learning Room for literature, displays, videos and other tools for families, and a conference concierge team to help participants connect.

Can't attend? Participate anyway: sign up to view the live online feed, submit a poster or recovery tool idea, send an mp3 file of a song for the Learning Room mix, send a postcard to F.E.A.S.T. to be displayed at the event, and don't forget to Twitter your messages to be displayed live at the conference. Details soon!

Who is paying? This is a unique event: the speakers and the participants are all paying their own way. This is not a fundraiser and there will be no marketing or advertising. This collaborative approach to funding this event is in the spirit of F.E.A.S.T.'s hopes for eating disorder treatment: collaborative and inclusive!

Click for program details and registration

F.E.A.S.T. Executive Director interviewed on Virginia Currents TV Show, May 20. 

Our founding Board Chair, Chris Berka, has resigned from the Board of Directors after several years of service to F.E.A.S.T. and the international parent community. Sarah Krevans will serve as our acting Board Chair, and Leslie Feder as our acting Vice-Chair and Finance Committee Chair. 

A new member in Timisuara wrote a Romanian translation of F.E.A.S.T.'s mission statement and principles.

Several of F.E.A.S.T.'s advisors, volunteers, and our Executive Director wrote contributions to the book Collaborative Approach to Eating Disorders" co-authored by F.E.A.S.T. Director, June Alexander and F.E.A.S.T. Advisor, Janet Treasure.

F.E.A.S.T. recently put out a call to members asking for donations to help distribute the new AED pamphlet, Critical Points for Early Recognition and Medical Risk Management in the Care of Individuals with Eating Disorders . The response was wonderful: over $2300 was raised in less than a week! F.E.A.S.T. will sponsor an exhibitor table at the October American Academy of Pediatrics conference in Boston to distribute the pamphlet and discuss eating disorders with front line medical professionals. AAP recently endorsed the AED document.

Around the Dinner Table forum lead moderator, one half of C&M Productions, has published a new training video "State Not Weight"  in collaboration with our Advisor, Professor Janet Treasure. 

A member of F.E.A.S.T. has pledged a $500 contribution to the Symposium as a scholarship for a parent couple to attend. This generous donation is being made by a professional who treats eating disorders in memory of a colleague in the field. If you are a couple who would otherwise not be able to afford to attend, please email for details.

New on the website: 

Dear Kate From Anna - A moving letter from a former patient to a young woman entering treatment. "I became so good at maths!"

Perfection and Control, by Jess. 

Despite the illness of some members and the general busy lives of all it has been a productive few weeks for F.E.A.S.T UK.

Charlotte Bevan has continued to work with Professor Treasure and Gill Todd on the CandM videos. The latest, State NOT Weight was released on July 25th.

In Scotland Mel Stevenson has joined the Eating Disorders Activist Group Scotland and is bringing F.E.A.S.T.'s message of hope, family inclusion and full nutrition to their table.  

The release of figures on the hospitalisation of very young children with eating disorders has produced a glut of newspaper stories, many of them poorly researched and badly reported but has also provided an opportunity for the task force to try to get F.E.A.S.T.'s message out to a wider audience and publicly question harmful messages. 

In the next few months there are several opportunities for face-to-face meetings, including of course the F.E.A.S.T. Symposium, which will be followed avidly on-line by those of us who cannot be there in person. More locally B-EAT are holding a series of "carers masterclasses"  which may be of interest to our members and F.E.A.S.T members will be speaking at Professor Treasure's Carers' Research Conference on 2nd December 

Click for more info on the UK Task force.

The work of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration continues. A number of F.E.A.S.T members are returning comments on draft documents.  The latest document for comment was the chapter structure for the Australian National Framework.

Bridget Bonnin was a guest speaker at an Eating Disorders information day held in Townsville on 6th August.

Interviewed by May-Lily Lee at Virginia Currents Television  *  Helped AP reporter with request for interviews  * invited to contribute chapter on parent activism for BED textbook *  Nominated to the 2013 Program Committee for the Academy for Eating Disorder Conference * Offered consultant position on AAP project "How to Reach Teens" * Assisted writer for the American Diabetes Association website * Wrote article for the Australian Practice Nurse Association on parents and eating disorders * Published chapter on eating disorder treatment published in a new textbook, "A Collaborative Approach to Eating Disorders," by Routledge 

Help other families by donating to F.E.A.S.T. -- and 'pay it forward' for the information you receive from this community! Good news: donations are tax deductible in the U.S. in accordance with Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3)