SYSTEMS
REFORM
WORK WITH DECOLONIZE EATING DISORDERS
We are currently working towards fundraising and building a team that will design and implement reform initiatives for the policies and systemic components that shape eating disorder diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
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The monopolization and privatization of the medical insurance industry governing eating disorder treatment.
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Lack of access to health and mental health treatment for eating disorders.
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The western-colonial constructs of eating disorder diagnoses and treatment options under the control of the American Psychological Association.
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The systemic control and monopolization of eating disorder treatment under the neo-liberal food Industry, medical-industrial complex, the A.P.A., and phytopharmaceutical industry.
If you have ideas for policy initiatives or would like to contribute in any way please email decolonizeeatingdisorders@gmail.com stating interest and how you can help.
Take Action through support and policy with these Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiatives
Eating Disorder Recovery and Prevention through a Regenerative Design Framework
“To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous
co-operation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” - Buckminster Fuller
to inform eating disorder diagnosis, treatment, and prevention form a systems change lens.
Designing Regenerative Cultures — Learning to Design as Nature
The false separation between nature and culture is the root cause of many of the converging crises we are facing. We have to move beyond simply learning from nature. We are capable of design as nature: maintaining ecosystem integrity, safeguarding diversity, nurturing systemic health, and strengthening the planetary life support system we depend upon! Human beings are perfectly capable of creating conditions conducive to life.
The good news is that we are already doing it. There are inspiring examples ranging in scale from green chemistry, product design, sustainable architecture, community design, industrial ecology, to urban and bioregional planning, and global-local collaboration and knowledge exchange. When practicing whole systems design aimed at improving human, ecosystems and planetary health, we need to pay attention to how all these different scales of design relate to each other and practice scale-linking design to weave the synergies between them.
Nature’s processes are inherently scale-linking. Regenerative cultures will be elegantly adapted to their locality and region. To achieve this everywhere we need national and global collaboration and solidarity. The health of individuals, commun-ities, ecosystems and the planet are intricately interlinked.
The evolutionary framework for regenerative design, created by Bill Reed, transcends and includes green, sustainable and restorative approaches as stepping-stones on our learning journey, as we explore how to live in ways that contribute to transforming humanity’s impact on Earth from being predominantly destructive to being regenerative.
Business as usual falls just short of breaking the law, sticking to the limits of what is allowed — what companies can get away with in their pursuit of profit. ‘Green’ often overly celebrates small voluntary steps to do a little less damage (e.g. so-called green building or industry standards). By the time we get to sustainable practices — what Bill McDonough called 100% less bad — we are no longer adding to the destruction that we have already caused. Yet, after a few thousand years of destructive agricultural practices and a few hundred years of exploitative industrialisation, that is not enough!
To create a thriving future for nine billion human beings and for all of life, we need to begin to reverse our destructive effects and start to heal communities, ecosystems and the Earth. Many, often well intended, restoration projects are still done with the arrogance of humanity as the ‘master of nature’ and we end up with projects such as planting Eucalyptus monoculture forests in already water-stressed areas and call it reforestation. We need to become humble apprentices of life.
Only if we heal the entirely mind-made separation of nature and culture, only if we truly understand our interbeing with all of life, can we reconcile humanity with the rest of nature. Once we take that step — which is primarily a shift in the way we think about ourselves and our participation in life’s evolutionary journey — we can begin to design as nature by co-creating elegant solutions adapted to the biocultural uniqueness of place.