Duke Center for Eating Disorders offers immersive family treatment to teach families how to best support and help family members with eating disorders.

Immersive family treatment for individuals with eating disorders provides an alternative to specialized, inpatient eating disorder programs and offers a feasible option for families not located near an outpatient eating disorders program.

In this model, the entire family, including siblings, receives intensive treatment services including daily meal coaching for a minimum of five days.

Assessment

Upon entering our program, families will participate in an initial assessment, which includes a psychological interview and questionnaires, nutrition assessment, and medical exam.

Families are then presented with concrete treatment goals and provided with a structured meal plan.

Treatment for the Entire Family

Our treatment model emphasizes empirically validated interventions and includes the following components:

• Individual and family psychotherapies
• Group therapies
• Parent support interventions
• Nutritional counseling
• Medical and psychopharmacological management

This intensive treatment format allows families to 'jumpstart' the treatment process when there is some urgency in providing families with needed skills to manage this disorder.

In addition, by including all family members, these skills should more easily generalize to the home environment. Following this intensive treatment at Duke, families will transition back to an out-patient team at home, return for a weekend refresher one month later, and receive continued support as needed.

We offer this treatment model for families with a child with an eating disorder, for adults with eating disorders, and for children who have a fear of trying new foods.

Appointments

To schedule an appointment at the Duke Center for Eating Disorders or to get a referral, call 919-668-0398 locally or 888-ASK-DUKE (888-275-3853) toll-free, or email DCED_Specialty@dm.duke.edu.

Due to an increased phone call volume, please allow four to seven business days for us to return your call. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Physicians

Physicians offering this service include:

• Kanfer, Meryl R.
  • Psychiatry
• Mauro, Christian F.
  • Psychiatry / Medical Psychology
• Merwin, Rhonda M.
  • Psychiatry / Medical Psychology
• Sangvai, Devdutta G.
  • Community and Family Medicine / STUDENT HEALTH
  • Pediatrics / Pediatrics-Chairman Office
  • Psychiatry
• Spratt, Susan E.
  • Medicine / Medicine-Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Staples, Betty B.
  • Pediatrics / Pediatrics-Primary Care
• Trost, Melanie K.
  • Community and Family Medicine / STUDENT HEALTH
• Wald, Marla F.
  • Psychiatry / Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• Weisberg, Laura J.
  • Psychiatry / Medical Psychology
• Zucker, Nancy L.
  • Psychiatry / Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Locations

This service is available at:

• Duke Center for Eating Disorders
  Pavilion East at Lakeview , 2608 Erwin Road, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27705
• Duke Child and Family Study Center
  Pavilion East at Lakeview, 2608 Erwin Road, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27705