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National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (NEDAW 2010)??
Host a letter-signing campaign for the EDC to support the FREED Act!!
Set up a table in a common area on your campus and ask students to email their Member of Congress urging their support for the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act. The FREED Act is the first comprehensive bill in the history of Congress to address eating disorders!!
*******What you need? A computer, internet access, and a few hours of your time!!
*******How to do it? It only takes 3 simple steps!!
STEP 1: ~ Find Out the Student's Member of Congress:
**Go to: www.house.gov
**Enter zip code of person wishing to send letter
**Ta da! You have the Representative's name
STEP 2: ~ Compose Letter:
**Using the sample letter below ask student to adapt the letter putting his or her name and contact info and writing it to either Congresswoman or Congressman depending on who she or he is.
SAMPLE LETTER:
Your Name
Your Street Address
Your City, State, Zip
Your telephone number and email address
Date
The Honorable First Name Last Name (Your Representative)
Dear Congressman/Congresswoman_____
As a constituent of your district who has personally been impacted by eating disorders, I am writing today to ask you to cosponsor the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders Act, (the FREED Act, H.R. 1193). The FREED Act is the first comprehensive eating disorders bill in the history of Congress. The bill focuses on research, treatment, education and prevention of eating disorders and serves as a beacon of hope for the millions of people in our country currently suffering from binge eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia, and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS).
At lowest estimate, 9 million American women and 1 million American men suffer from anorexia, bulimia, and EDNOS. It is estimated that between 2-5% of the American population suffers with binge eating disorder. Eating disorders affect every single system of the body and are associated with serious medical complications including cardiac arrhythmia, cognitive impairment, osteoporosis, infertility, heart failure and death. In fact, left untreated anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of all mental disorders, at upwards of 20%. However, when a person suffering from anorexia receives proper treatment, the death rate falls to between just 2-3%.
Research demonstrates that eating disorders CAN be successfully overcome when early detection and adequate and appropriate treatment take place. Unfortunately, at this point in time, eating disorders are all too often undiagnosed or completely misdiagnosed by health professionals, and access to treatment is limited. Less than 1/2 of all people with eating disorders receive the treatment they both need and deserve.
The FREED Act will save lives by providing for better access to proper treatment, research dollars to better understand the etiology and effective treatment of eating disorders, grant programs to ensure more medical health professionals and school personnel be trained on eating disorders prevention and treatment, as well as PSA's to broaden awareness of eating disorders.
Currently the FREED Act has bipartisan support with 27 cosponors. I want to urge you to also sign on as a cosponsor of the FREED Act (HR 1193) today. The FREED Act would have significantly changed my life and could have saved thousands of lives before now. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Warm regards,
First and Last Name
STEP 3: ~ Send Letter Via Email:
**Go to the Member of Congress's website.
**(Most offices allow you to email your letter directly from their website
**Cut and paste the adapted letter into their email.
**Send.
STEP 4: ~ Let us know your results:
**Send the EDC a note telling us how many students wrote letters and to which offices.
Email policyassistantedc@yahoo.com with that info.
Thanks so much! The more letters Members of Congress receive the more support for this bill. Let's get it passed this session!
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