Fostering Resilience for Every Body

Prevention | Education | Support | Advocacy

Support Spotlight | From Isolation to Connection

by Nicole Santonastaso, RDN, LD, IBCLC, CDCES, Provider Consultation Group Facilitator

This story from one of our support group facilitators shows exactly what your generosity makes possible.

In rural Alaska, the landscape is vast, beautiful, but geographically isolating. For a long time, as a healthcare provider facing the complexities of treating eating disorders, that professional isolation felt just as profound as the geographical one.

Rural medicine makes us generalists by necessity. We see everything. Yet, when faced with highly specialized conditions like eating disorders, the lack of immediate, local resources can feel heavy. You often wonder

if you have the right tools to just identify what is happening, let alone treat it.

I recall a time when I recognized that our community needed a stronger baseline understanding of these complex illnesses. We didn't need to become a specialized treatment center overnight, but we did need better foundational knowledge on how to identify eating disorders, approach initial medical stabilization, and handle diagnosis with confidence.

AKEDA stepped in and bridged that gap. They helped secure funding to bring essential, foundational education directly to our community. It ensured our team felt more confident to serve as that critical first point of contact for patients facing these illnesses.

Now, I have the immense privilege of paying forward that sense of connection by facilitating AKEDA’s monthly provider consultation group. Every meeting, I watch providers log into our virtual space, often carrying the same uncertainties I used to carry alone. They are looking for clinical brainstorming, yes, but they are also desperate for a social lifeline. This is a place to connect with people who truly understand the unique pressures of this work.

In that group, I get to witness the incredible alchemy of adequate support. I see the relief on a provider’s face when a colleague says, "I’ve seen that before, here is a resource that helped." I get to watch colleagues move from feeling stuck to feeling empowered, achieving successes with their clients because they finally have a network behind them.

Supporting AKEDA is not just about funding an organization – it’s about funding the infrastructure that connects isolated providers to foundational resources.

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Your Gift Makes This Possible

As we close out the year, we hope you’ll help continue funding the critical support and resources Alaska providers need to screen, diagnose, and treat eating disorders in our communities. When you give, you directly build capacity in our healthcare system and create a collaborative network of Alaska providers treating complex eating disorders.

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