{"id":19779,"date":"2018-02-08T11:35:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T16:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19779"},"modified":"2018-02-08T11:35:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T16:35:29","slug":"graphic-novel-aims-to-help-teens-and-parents-understand-eating-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/graphic-novel-aims-to-help-teens-and-parents-understand-eating-disorders\/","title":{"rendered":"Graphic novel aims to help teens and parents understand eating disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nIf Dr. Ahmed Boachie had his way, it would be given to parents as soon as they found out they were expecting. In the meantime, however, he and the team at Southlake Regional Health Centre\u2019s Eating Disorders Program are looking to guide families through the challenge in a new and creative way.
\nOn Monday, Dr. Boachie helped launch Don\u2019t Wait! A Guided Program for Teens with Eating Disorders.
\nA graphic novel, it incorporates the hallmarks of Southlake\u2019s eight week eating disorders program for children and adolescents, but is updated, refreshed and looking to take on stigma and misconceptions.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s obviously easy to read, it catches the eye, and it\u2019s easy to understand what can be done with the new illustrations,\u201d says Dr. Boachie.
\nBut, it is so much more.
\nAccording to Jill Fraleigh, one of the authors of Don\u2019t Wait, when the original program was first developed, evidence-based data on how to treat people living with eating disorders was scant. That data, however, is now at hand and it was a matter of looking at ways to incorporate that evidence into the program and bring information up to date.
\n\u201cEating disorders are so unique that in every program we have something different,\u201d says Dr. Boachie. \u201cFamilies play a key role in getting young people well. If I had my own way, the book would be sold all over the place once people became pregnant.\u201d
\nFrom their perspective, parents and families are on the frontlines of first identifying whether their child or teen might be living with an eating disorder but can often be harbouring misconceptions about the issue, including the belief that they might be at the root cause of it.
\n\u201cOne of the misconceptions some parents believe [is] they cause eating disorders, suddenly it is about eating,\u201d says Dr. Boachie. \u201cNobody causes eating disorders. It has been proven time and again. It\u2019s a very strange illness. It doesn\u2019t matter the position you are in the family, middle child, first child, age \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d
\nAdds Ms. Fraleigh: \u201cWe don\u2019t know what causes eating disorders, but we know families have a really important role in terms of recovery. Families don\u2019t cause eating disorders, but families are vital in terms of recovery. If families don\u2019t get involved, it is really hard for kids to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Dr. Ahmed Boachie had his way, it would be given to parents as soon as they found out they were expecting. In the meantime, however, he and..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-08-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-591","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 16:28:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}