Laura Lyster-Mensh
I am honoring Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh because her work in the field of Eating Disorders helped our family member and thousands of other families get appropriate and effective care for an eating disorder. Laura Collins (as she has been known for years before revealing her last name Lyster-Mensh) is a parent activist who wants all parents to know that the era of excluding and marginalizing parents in eating disorder care is coming to an end. Generations of stigma for both sufferers and their families are giving way to a more optimistic and effective set of tools for full recovery. With a no-tolerance attitude toward dieting and malnourishment that drives this brain disorder Collins believes parents can and should be members of the treatment team. Parents seeking care for an eating disordered child deserve support and good information. Laura is: 1 - Founder and first Executive Director and Policy Director of FEAST (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders) a nonprofit of and for parents and caregivers 2 - Founder of the Around the Dinner Table FEAST online forum 3 - Member of the Academy of Eating Disorders 4 - Served on the Academy of Eating Disorders Worldwide Charter Committee Patient/Carer Task Force and 2009 & 2013 ICED Program Committee 5 - author of Eating with Your Anorexic (McGraw-Hill) and Throwing Starfish Across the Sea (Charlotte's Helix) 6 - and a parent on a mission