On Friday, April 24, GCSU students Nina Bartlett and Mary Piper presented a proposal to the Student Government Association (SGA) that the school’s counselors should undergo specialized eating disorder training, which passed unanimously.
Bartlett, a junior mass communications major, explained that the proposal started out as a class project and grew into a real initiative from there.
“We were in fundamentals of public speaking and we were assigned to do a persuasive speech,” she said. “I had some experience with eating disorders and people who I know who’ve had them and struggled with getting the counseling they needed.”
After she gave the speech in class, Bartlett was approached by Piper, who is also a member of SGA, and they put the proposal together from there. Their idea was that counselors here at GCSU would be given training more specific to the recognition and treatment of eating disorders, as they are especially prevalent in college students.
“Most estimates place the rate of diagnosed eating disorders in college students at around 15-20%,” said an article from the University of Chicago. “However, over 30% of students report engaging in disordered eating behaviors such as making themselves vomit, using diet pills, or engaging in compulsive exercise.”
Bartlett shared that she believes societal standards and pressures are the main reasons for the commonality of eating disorders in college, as noted by the article.
“Social media, friend groups, it’s the social scene,” she said. “You feel like you have to change yourself to be accepted, and I feel like [college students] are so much more susceptible to that kind of stuff because they’re still growing and learning.”
Now that the proposal has passed unanimously at the SGA level, it will move up through the university administration as they decide how and when to best implement it. The training will include counselors working with registered nutritionists and dieticians in order to become more familiar with the early signs of eating disorders and the best ways to approach them.
According to an article by Psychiatric Times, “Up to 80% of eating disorders go undetected or never receive treatment.” Bartlett feels that hers and Piper’s proposal is so important because they hope it will reduce the number of undiagnosed disorders on campus by getting more GCSU students the help they might need on a more personal and specialized level.
“I think it’s actually something that could really help people, hopefully,” Bartlett said. “Even if one person feels a bit more supported by having the counselors know a little bit more about what they might be struggling with, then I feel good knowing that I helped do that.”
Bartlett wants GCSU students to understand that they aren’t alone in their struggles and that they deserve to have adequate help in getting through them.
“You don’t have to live in a negative headspace,” she said. “There’s so much more to life than how you look.”
Students who may be struggling with an eating disorder or mental health conflicts of any kind should reach out to GCSU’s counseling services at 478-445-5331. For updates on the progression of the proposal, students can speak with members of SGA at [email protected] or visit their office on the third floor of the Student Activities Center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.