Recommendation 1

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider supporting research on the impact of media messaging and marketing directed toward children and the impact and consequences of society’s current, narrow definition of beauty.

Recommendation 2

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada encourage academic institutions to promote media literacy for young children to help them to view media content critically and question the messages therein.

Recommendation 3

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada collaborate with the provinces and territories to consider adjusting medical criteria for defining normal weights beyond quantitative measures such as Body Mass Index.

Recommendation 4

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada review the information it provides on nutrition to encompass greater sensitivity in its guidelines on “good” and “bad” foods with the goal of helping to prevent unintended consequences, such as children as young as five years old developing eating disorders, which have been alleged to arise from the current guidance.

Recommendation 5

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada collaborate with the provinces and territories to consider developing a health and well-being education and awareness campaign, including both in-school and social media content, to foster a positive sense of self to protect against eating disorders, and to include media literacy components to counteract images portrayed in mainstream media.

Recommendation 6

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider developing a federal framework supported by an online public resource that would serve to collect from, and provide to, all provinces and territories information, statistics, best practices in recognizing symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment, and to raise awareness about the prevalence of eating disorders in Canada. This would close gaps in data collection and analysis regarding eating disorders and ensure a comprehensive picture of the incidence and prevalence of eating disorders and corresponding services in Canada.

Recommendation 7

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada, in collaboration with the provincial and territorial governments and the Mental Health Commission of Canada, consider including those living with eating disorders, their families, and stakeholders in discussions and round tables regarding mental health.

Recommendation 8

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with provinces, territories, and stakeholders to ensure that sufficient materials on eating disorders are incorporated into curricula for medical, nursing, psychology, psychiatry, and other health care professions to raise awareness and reduce stereotypes and stigma around eating disorders.

Recommendation 9

The Committee recognizes that there is a need for an advocacy group, like the National Initiative for Eating Disorders, to advocate on behalf of those living with eating disorders and to raise public awareness.

Recommendation 10

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada recognize as a best practice the availability of navigators for eating disorders for the health and mental health care system to help identify quality services available in a timely manner, and help individuals and families navigate the system.

Recommendation 11

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to improve understanding of eating disorders in the health care field. One current model is the Ontario Community Outreach Program for Eating Disorders which delivers education and other supports to health care professionals and encourages and empowers health care professionals to treat people with eating disorders.

Recommendation 12

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to recognize that there exists in Canadian society, and within the medical community, a lack of understanding and a stigmatization of eating disorders.

Recommendation 13

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to encourage multidisciplinary care teams, which might include dieticians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other necessary therapists, to ensure quality treatment, including for concurrent conditions.

Recommendation 14

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should consider putting in place a centre of excellence or a national research chair in eating disorders, and increasing funding available for eating disorders research.

Recommendation 15

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories and stakeholders to ensure that all jurisdictions send eating disorder data to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Data coverage is estimated at 59% of overall visits across eight jurisdictions.

Recommendation 16

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories and stakeholders to ensure that data on activities in primary care and community-based clinics is collected and sent to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Recommendation 17

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories and stakeholders to ensure access to information, diagnosis, and treatment for Canadians living with eating disorders, and particularly for remote and rural communities, and marginalized populations.

Recommendation 18

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada encourage provincial and territorial governments, due to the life-threatening nature of eating disorders and a shortage of treatment beds, to provide either in-patient care as needed for patients with eating disorders on a timely basis or to consider covering the cost of treatments available outside the province, including in the United States, with the goal that patients can access the critical care they need in a timely fashion.

Recommendation 19

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to reduce lengthy wait times for admission to eating disorder programs across the country.

Recommendation 20

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to overcome the challenges in accessing treatment, including a lack of a centralized database of treatment programs, undertrained health care providers, an insufficient number of programs, and uneven distribution of programs across the country, long wait times for treatment, inappropriate treatment programs, and a lack of pan-Canadian, evidence-based treatment standards.

Recommendation 21

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider developing consistent standards on clinical care treatment and wait times for people with eating disorders.

Recommendation 22

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to help community programs offer integrated treatment approaches, as a recognized best practice, that include family members and people with eating disorders.

Recommendation 23

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada should work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to examine as a best practice that patients be treated by multi-disciplinary medical teams with experience and expertise on treating eating disorders.

Recommendation 24

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider improving research on treating eating disorders, such as deep brain stimulation and trans-cranial magnetic stimulation.

Recommendation 25

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada work with the provinces, territories, and stakeholders to encourage relevant authorities to consider examining residential hospitalization treatment programs with the goal of ensuring that patients receive an adequate length of care in order to gain control of the eating disorder before being sent home, helping to improve conditions for a successful recovery.