Veritas Blog

Chase Bannister, Co-Founder of Veritas Collaborative, shares the critical need for education and awareness about eating disorders in an interview with WIS-TV.

Veritas Collaborative, a specialty hospital system for the treatment of eating disorders, announced the opening this week of a new hospital in Durham for adults 18 and older with eating disorders.

Veritas Collaborative, a specialty hospital system for the treatment of eating disorders, today announced that the organization has moved its Durham child and adolescent hospital to a new, bigger facility in Durham and will open an adult hospital in the coming weeks.

Recovering from an eating disorder requires intentional effort, and people often look for guidance on how to prioritize goals that support a positive recovery. One of the main priorities shown in research to enhance recovery is improving the body’s nutritional state. When an individual is engaged in eating disordered behaviors, they become poorly nourished. An inadequate nutritional state perpetuates these behaviors, which make treatment and recovery more difficult. Therapy and medication are also less effective in a malnourished state further highlighting the importance of targeting proper nutrition for a more positive outcome.

Veritas Collaborative, a specialty hospital system for the treatment of eating disorders, has appointed Kenneth Moore as vice president of operations during a time of expansive growth.

“I am thrilled to welcome Ken Moore to our leadership team,” said Stacie McEntyre, founder, president, and CEO of Veritas Collaborative. “His extraordinary leadership skills, unique experience in inpatient eating disorders hospital operations, and mission-driven focus will ensure that Veritas Collaborative continues to provide premier care as we expand to new locations.”

Leah Graves has joined Veritas Collaborative as Senior Director of Nutrition Services. With over 30 years of experience in the provision of eating disorders care, Graves is highly respected for her expertise in medical nutrition therapy, nutrition counseling, center supervision, and research.

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC-01) has co-sponsored the Anna Westin Act after his visit to Veritas Collaborative, a specialty hospital system for the treatment of eating disorders. Congressman Butterfield met with key members of the Veritas Collaborative staff on April 4 and toured the inpatient eating disorders hospital.

Chase Bannister, Co-Founder of Veritas Collaborative, shares his insight into the need for education and awareness about eating disorders in an interview with WBRE-TV.

Join us for the second annual M.O.M. March in Washington D.C. We’ll be marching alongside mothers, families, and other advocates for improved eating disorder training for medical professionals, better insurance coverage for patients, and more funding for eating disorder research. Eating disorders are treatable, but access to care is gravely inadequate.

Veritas Collaborative was proud to host United States Congressman David Price (NC District 4). Representative Price toured our eating disorder treatment facility and met with a number of employees who are constituents of his district.

Eating disorder advocates around the nation are more energized now than ever before because The Anna Westin Act of 2015 is the first eating disorders legislation to receive bipartisan support at introduction in the past decade.

“Anna’s Law,” named in memory of 21-year-old Anna Westin from Minnesota, was introduced by United States Congressman Ted Deutch and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen during the Eating Disorders Coalition National Lobby Day, May 13th 2015, at a congressional staff briefing.

Patients with eating disorders often struggle with perfectionism, comparisons with peers, and a diminished sense of self-worth — which, in turn, hinder the creative process and a person’s ability to interact authentically with the world. Working together in expressive arts groups, patients form a creative community where they are empowered to overcome and share their struggles.

The most recent community-building creative project at Veritas Collaborative in expressive arts has been planting and caring for an herb and flower garden. As warmer weather approached this spring, patients planted a variety of flowers and herbs — snapdragons, marigolds, ipomoea, licorice plants, thyme, rosemary, and more. Group members discussed the importance of the plant’s root systems and witnessed the flowers reaching toward the sun as a symbol of hope. Every day the patients take turns watering the plants, observing the unique quality of each flower, and learning how the plants coexist in a mutually beneficial environment.

A few months before Veritas Collaborative opened, we had a small team, 29,000 square feet to up-fit, and a huge vision: A world in which all persons with eating disorders and their families have access to best-practice care and hold hope for a cure. 

And, we didn’t take this vision lightly. After months of construction, preparation, recruiting, and training, we opened our doors to our first patients on June 4th, 2012, and brought our vision to life.

As we grow from infancy to adulthood, our preferences, beliefs, and senses of self undergo dramatic shifts. Friends come and go, relationships with family change, and music comforts us, emboldens us, cries and laughs with us along the way.

Please join us to celebrate the real you with a free photobooth event to kick off NEDAwareness Week 2015. This event is in partnership with the National Eating Disorders Association.

Veritas Collaborative will be promoting media literacy at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham, NC with a free photobooth and fun props where you can come and #BeRealBeYou!

Veritas Collaborative is proud to announce that the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) certified Erikka Dzirasa, MD, MPH, Veritas’ Associate Medical Director of Psychiatry, as a Diplomate in Psychiatry.

Last Tuesday, September 30th 2014, I had the pleasure of traveling with several co-workers to Washington D.C. to attend the first annual M.O.M. (Mothers and Others) March on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol – and wow, was it powerful.

The speakers at the march were brave and honest, sharing stories of barriers eating disorder patients experience on the road to recovery. Several mothers spoke out about their child’s eating disorder not being taken seriously by his/her primary care physician.

Veritas Collaborative, a Specialty Behavioral Health Hospital for children and adolescents with eating disorder diagnoses, now offers nasogastric (NG) tube feeding services for patients determined to be in need of this treatment.

Stuart Kaplan, MD, FAAP, the Veritas Collaborative Associate Medical Director – Pediatrics, was featured on News14 In Depth this morning.

Creative expression and authentic emotions are often silenced by the presence of an eating disorder. As a nonverbal language, expressive arts can facilitate the process of slowly uncovering and unearthing the creative self that may be hidden under layers of shame and guilt.