Veritas Collaborative Celebrates Another Year of Healing & Recovery
Today is an important day at Veritas Collaborative, as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of our Child, Adolescent and Young Adult Hospital in Atlanta, GA and the seven-year anniversary of our Child & Adolescent Hospital in Durham, NC. When it opened one year ago, our Atlanta site was Georgia’s first eating disorder hospital. Together, these hospitals represent a commitment to create access to care where it did not before exist.
“These joint anniversaries serve as both reminders and motivators for our entire team,” said Stacie McEntyre, LCSW, CEDS, founder and CEO of Veritas Collaborative. “As we celebrate the successes of the Atlanta and Durham hospitals, we are reminded of our positive impact in the lives of those affected by eating disorders, and that recovery is attainable. At the same time, these milestones serve as motivation because we are on a mission to drive the standard of care in eating disorders treatment on a national level, and our work is not done.”
As Georgia’s first hospital focused solely on the treatment of eating disorder illnesses, Veritas Collaborative works hand-in-hand with the community to provide multidisciplinary care for children, adolescents, and young adults up to age 21 impacted by eating disorder illnesses. The 50-bed hospital provides inpatient, residential, and partial hospitalization services to all genders and has treated approximately 150 individuals during its first year of operations.
“While the journey to recovery is and will always be challenging, our first year of operation has broken down significant barriers to care throughout the Southeast,” says Anna Tanner, MD, FAAP, FSAHM, CEDS, vice president of medical services for Veritas Collaborative. “In the past, families relocated because of limited treatment options, or foregone treatment altogether. The opening of our Atlanta hospital has taken some of that pressure off of these families because we now have a highly-valued resource with highly-skilled medical, nutritional, and psychological providers that offer hope and healing to families in their own backyard.”
This sentiment rings true in Raleigh-Durham as well. With an extensive wait list for a potentially lethal illness, increased capacity in Atlanta helped fill an additional need for care, allowing patients to access options faster.
“Celebrating these anniversaries is a great representation of our mission in action,” says Sara Hofmeier, MS, LPCS, CEDS-S, executive director of Durham’s Child & Adolescent Hospital. “We are passionate about helping families access the care they need. That means eliminating unnecessary hoops for them to jump through on their journey to recovery. Meeting their needs by providing access to a full spectrum of care that coincides with quality, evidence-based treatment in their home state eliminates massive barriers to getting well.”
The Durham hospital offers multidisciplinary care for children and adolescents ages 8 to 17. The 40-bed hospital provides inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and level of care assessment services in a gender-inclusive environment. It has treated approximately 865 individuals during seven years of operations.
We believe in taking meaningful action each day to create a world in which all persons with eating disorders and their families and communities have access to best-practice care and hold hope for a cure. As a result of patient demand and community support, we will be opening our new Child, Adolescent & Young Adult facility in Charlotte, NC later this month. The center will now offer partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, outpatient, and level of care assessment services. The Charlotte facility will remain the region’s only gender-diverse, multidisciplinary eating disorder center to provide comprehensive medical & behavioral assessments that diagnose eating disorders and other conditions that may require medical intervention.
The Veritas leadership team extends a heartfelt thank you to our team members, providers, and community partners for their commitment to creating spaces that make recovery attainable. Finally, we want to express our sincere appreciation for our past and current patients. We understand that recovery journeys are unique to each individual, but this statement can be made universally to each of you: We believe in you, we will continue to fight for you, and we thank you for entrusting us with your wellness.