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Andrea’s Voice Needs to Be Heard: An effective education program on Eating Disorders
By Heather K. Arnold, Residence Hall Director, University of Connecticut
Take this quick test:
Do students on your campus have eating disorders?
Do you want to put on a great program to educate students about eating disorders?
The importance of education about eating disorders
It is estimated that between 5 and 10 millions girls and women and 1 million boys and men in the United States suffer from eating disorders related to anorexia nervosa, bulimia and compulsive overeating. Many of these students currently live on campus in your residence halls, and as administrators it is important to work to increase awareness about these disorders that put many of our students in extreme risk.
One option for education is a program called Andrea’s Voice.
I first learned about Andrea’s Voice last year when the SHAPE Peer Educator’s of the University of Connecticut invited Tom and Doris Smeltzer to campus. Their daughter Andrea died in her sleep on June 16, 1999, after a 13-month battle with bulimia. Her death was due to an electrolyte imbalance, which caused her heart to fail. In a news article in the NAPA register, Brooke E. Bryant and Sarah Krupp wrote, “Andrea Smeltzer was a vibrant and promising young woman, an exemplary student with a passion for life that made an impression on everyone she knew.” Andrea attended Pitzer College where she was highly involved in the campus community.
Andrea’s death was shocking because she didn’t look sick and she was already receiving treatment for the disorder. Andrea was honest and open with her family when she first binged and purged. She seemed to want to get help and also to find out everything she could about her disorder and how to recover. In her mother’s words, "Andrea knew eating disorders inside, outside, backwards, forwards. She could quote you line and verse. But knowledge does not equate with behavioral change. That is why just informing people is not enough. Just being educated is not enough. Because Andrea knew."
This dynamic multimedia presentation is intensely captivating. The Smeltzer’s work/presentation incorporates beautiful pictures, vivid quotes and Andrea’s own illuminating voice. Her father floats deftly in and out of the presentation, only speaking for Andrea. It’s sharp and moving the way her parents have seamlessly woven this presentation, bringing together volumes of information, yet retaining an approachable intimacy. Her mother begins the evening with a soft voice that almost sounds like she’s holding back tears but remains constant and draws the audience into a mesmerizing swirl of facts, support, media images, poems, resources and opportunities to seek and receive help. This outline of the presentation is taken from the Website, www.andreasvoice.org:
During their Andrea's Voice presentations, Tom and Doris take their listeners on a journey into the heart and mind of a disordered eater. With the knowledge they have gained from experts in the field and via their daughter's words they describe the factors that contribute to the development of an eating disorder, the warning signs, approaches to use when speaking with a suspected sufferer as well as the necessary components of an effective treatment plan. This presentation promotes understanding without judgment and encourages shifted paradigms to move individuals toward personal change with a desire for action in the areas of prevention and treatment of this all too silent epidemic.
Bringing Andrea’s Voice to the University of Connecticut was a team effort with leadership coming from Student Health Services, the Nutritionists, Residential Life, Counseling Services, the Women’s Center and Students Helping to Achieve Positive Esteem (SHAPE Peer Educators). Without any way to gauge student response, a room was booked that could accommodate more than 300 students and a broadcast link to a nearby classroom. Student attendance was overwhelming. We had students asking to sit in the aisles and stairwells, filling the hallway and the back-up classroom—to the point where administrators began to worry about fire code violations. Student response to the program was uniformly positive, and it was obviously one of those rare, life-changing events for many.
This is a performance you will not want to miss.
If you are interested in having the Smeltzers present for your school/organization or in ordering brochures, please e-mail Doris at: doris@andreasvoice.org
Some additional warning signs taken from andreasvoice.org:
| • | body dissatisfaction | • | high achievement expectations | |
| • | dizziness | • | lack of period or irregular periods | |
| • | persistent low calorie intake | • | bloating/nausea/abdominal pain | |
| • | calorie counting | • | constipation | |
| • | extreme physical activity | • | frequent weight fluctuations | |
| • | frequent meal skipping | • | depression | |
| • | restrictive eating pattern | • | perfectionism | |
| • | guilt after eating/secret eating | • | poor coping with life event | |
| • | unrealistic weight goals | • | substance use/early sexual activity | |
| • | thinness as valued goal | • | parent(s) with ongoing weight/fitness focus | |
| • | recent withdrawal from friends | • | alcoholism/substance abuse in parent(s) | |
| • | family history of obesity/eating disorder |
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is February 25, 2003 through March 4, 2003
About the Author:
Heather Arnold is currently a Residence Hall Director at the University of Connecticut and a member of the NEACUHO Women’s Issues Committee. She has been committed to issues surrounding women including Body Image and Eating Disorders for over a decade. She created two Peer Education programs while at Trinity College and currently works with the SHAPE Peer Educators at the University of Connecticut.