Our mission is to be guided by the Amy Helpenstell Foundation's message of help, hope and healing by promoting awareness, understanding, diagnosis and treatment for eating disorders in our community.
Amy's Gift is a resource provider, not a treatment center. Our focus is to educate the public and provide information on eating disorder resources local to the Quad Cities area.
2024
updates & EVENTS
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eating disorder RESOURCES
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About Amy's Gift
In April 2007, the Amy Helpenstell Foundation sponsored a community survey on eating disorders in conjunction with the Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health. This one-of-a-kind survey included interviews with 800 residents throughout the Quad-City area and covered residents' knowledge of eating disorders, perceptions of eating disorders and suggestions for recommended treatment of eating disorders. View those results.
The survey showed our community was surprisingly accurate in their knowledge of eating disorders as they are clinically defined. However, whereas the perception of eating disorders was as a predominantly mental rather than physical disorder, over half of the respondents identified their preferred treatment site as a family doctor's office or hospital.
One of the central initiatives of Amy's Gift (formerly known as the QC Eating Disorders Consortium) then became to gauge and raise awareness at the primary reference source for treatment: the family practitioner. Since then we have conducted several focus groups with local physicians to gauge their comfort with diagnosis, treatment and referral for patients with eating disorders as well as school officials to discover where training and education were most needed.
These focus groups culminated in an effort to provide annual, local continuing education events on eating disorders for practitioners, school officials and the general public as well as a detailed website with local resources and links to national organizations for professionals and patients alike.
contact
Stephanie Burrough
Program Coordinator, Amy's Gift
For the past 13 years Stephanie has acted as Project Coordinator for Amy's Gift, a Quad Cities Eating Disorders Consortium. As someone who experienced an eating disorder at a young age, she is honored to forward the mission of "hope, help and healing for those with eating disorders in the Quad Cities community".
In her current role as Community Relations Specialist at the Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health she acts as an advocate and organizer for various mental health programs and training events throughout the year. Stephanie is also a member of the Trauma Support Team with Challenge to Change and the BE REAL Ambassador Coordinator for BE REAL USA.
If you are looking for assistance in finding local eating disorder treatment referral information, would like information on upcoming local eating disorder trainings, locating a professional speaker to provide information on eating disorders, or would like to receive an information packet with details on local resources from Amy's Gift, please contact Stephanie via phone at (563) 742-2445 or email info@amysgift.com.