NEDIC is committed to helping individuals who experience eating disorders or disordered eating, regardless of whether or not they have received an eating disorder diagnosis. “Health” is comprised of many factors beyond our physical bodies – it includes our mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and community well-being.
We acknowledge that inequity and injustice can have an insurmountable impact on an individual’s health and health outcomes. Many of these barriers are far beyond any individual or community’s control, but we can bridge these gaps by working together. Experiences of racism, intergenerational trauma, and settler colonialism can have powerfully negative impacts on “health.” NEDIC recognizes the inherent worth of all individuals, regardless of their relationship to “health,” seeing as “health” is an impermanent state of being, and the degree to which “health” is attainable varies widely between individuals. We do not believe that being “healthy” or pursuing “health” is an obligation an individual owes to society, nor reflective of someone’s value.
Bodies do not have to look a certain way in order to be deserving of respect. Western appearance ideals are rooted in white supremacy. Our commitment is always to supporting the individual, regardless of the body they inhabit, with an understanding that their body impacts the way they move through the world, the way they are perceived, and how they may be treated when they attempt to receive eating disorder-related care.
The field of eating disorders is historically and chronically very white. This has made it unsafe for people of other ethnicities. Black peoples, Indigenous peoples, and other people of colour are less likely to receive appropriate care from professionals who understand the ways in which race, identity, and health intersect. NEDIC is committed to continually learning from a place of humility and working to do better. This includes establishing community partnerships and paying for ongoing professional development for our team members in order to best support all who access our programs and services, especially members of underserved communities. Everyone is deserving of care that is responsive and understanding of the diverse and dynamic layers that exist in our lives.
In the field of eating disorders, both we and our clients often work with dietitians, social workers, and therapists, and each of those professions has its own complex history with whiteness and colonization. In Canada, dietitians participated in experiments on Indigenous children at Residential Schools, without their or their families’ knowledge or consent. Social workers have removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them to Residential Schools or to foster care. Therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists have embedded whiteness into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which continues to be the prevailing document used in the mental health field. These are just a few examples of the way whiteness permeates this field and the work we do, creating impacts that persist to this day.
Treatment and access to treatment is still shaped by these wrongs and the impacts of these generational traumas. NEDIC cannot right all of those wrongs, but we commit to trying to do better. This includes working with community members to understand their needs, and conveying those needs to providers when we offer training, committing to diversity in hiring, and welcoming feedback – even when critical – to better support the people we are privileged to serve.
“We call upon those who can effect change within the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients.”