Professor Offers Support and Strategies for Families Confronting Eating Disorders
Press Release - February 18, 2005
University Park, Pa.-- Approximately 8 million people in the United States suffer from debilitating eating disorders, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. That's three out of every 100 people in this country who consume food in such a disordered way-from binging and purging to not eating at all-as to need specialized treatment. In addition, it is estimated that as much as 40 percent of young girls, as early as grades 1, 2 and 3, are already experiencing stress and concern over body weight and body image. By the time they reach college, 10 percent of the female student population will have full-fledged eating disorders.
The statistics are alarming to parents. Cheryl Dellasega, professor of humanities at the Penn State College of Medicine at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, has written a new book that offers strength for those caregivers worried about their daughters or sons who have become afflicted with this condition. In The Starving Family: Caregiving Mothers and Fathers Share Their Eating Disorder Wisdom (Champion Press, 2005), Dellasega provides a peek into the secretive world of families struggling with children who suffer from eating disorders. With personal stories culled from 25 mothers and fathers, Dellasega-a nurse practitioner with a Ph.D. in health education-gives voices to those families and then offers support, insight, comfort and strategies that will appeal to both parents and professionals.
Dellasega is internationally known for her scholarly work on psychosocial issues related to families. She is the creator of Club Ophelia, a program that aims to overcome relational aggression (bullying) among middle school girls by using mentoring and an arts-based curriculum. She is also the author of guidebooks for parents about the needs of adolescent girls: "Surviving Ophelia: Mothers Share Their Wisdom in Navigating the Tumultuous Teenage Years" (Ballantine Books, 2002); with Charisse Nixon of Penn State Erie, "Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying" (Simon & Schuster, 2003); and "Mean Girls Grow Up" (Wiley, 2005). Dellasega's scholarship has garnered state and national media attention, including a national radio tour and appearances on NBC's Today show and Fox News.
Her new book, "The Starving Family"-which comes with a companion workbook-is timely, released in February to coincide with National Eating Disorder Awareness Month. The Library Journal has called the book "an important and innovative contribution to the field."
Penn State College of Medicine Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry Richard L. Levine is a contributor to the book. Levine is director of Penn State's Eating Disorders Program, an outpatient treatment program where art is used as an adjunct to medical care - http://www.hmc.psu.edu/eatingdisorders