Recovery in a Broken Mental Health System: Insights, Tools and Hope from Two Multiply Marginalized Survivors
Presented by Allyson Inez Ford and Sharon Maxwell at MEDA Eating Disorders Conference in 2025In this one hour presentation, Allyson and Sharon discussed some of the systemic issues impacting mental health and eating disorder treatment including capitalism, anti-fat bias, ableism and racism. Despite these huge barriers, Allyson and Sharon discussed what it looks like to help clients find meaningful recovery in a broken system- while challenging the system to transform at the same time. Discussed concepts like radical hope, hope as a relational construct and shared clinical interventions.
Learning Objectives Included:
Gain competency in understanding systemic issues in eating disorder treatment.
Share insights and clinical research on fostering hope in recovery despite system failures.
Share inclusive and creative approaches that augment existing treatment interventions.
