LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Within Health, an eating disorder treatment company, called on Facebook Tuesday to collaborate constructively in an effort to foster healing, amid whistleblower allegations that it knowingly led users to pro-eating disorder, pro-anorexia content.
Within Health co-founder psychiatrist Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt issued the following statement:
“I was disturbed and disheartened by the whistleblower’s testimony that Facebook knew it was leading its users to harmful anorexia content. Eating disorders are the deadliest psychiatric disorder, impacting more than thirty million Americans.
Today I call on Facebook to partner with us on a solution that can help repair any damage that has been done in the past, ideally offering content that will help users to find health and healing. Together we can prevent vulnerable people, especially children, from being exposed to harmful content.
We urge Facebook to do the right thing by placing a premium on its users’ mental health and physical health above all else.”
About Within Health
Co-founded by Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt and venture investor Abhilash Patel, Within Health is the first comprehensive, all-virtual treatment solution designed specifically for people suffering from eating disorders. Built by experts in the field, Within Health brings a recovery-oriented milieu and treatment program to patients overseen by a highly trained, multidisciplinary clinical team. Working on treatment from home, where life happens, the service provides individual therapy, remote patient monitoring, advanced nutrition therapy and catered meal support, all designed to interrupt the progression of eating disorders, prevent relapse and support long-term recovery.
About Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt
Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, M.D., Within Health Chief Medical Officer, Psychiatrist, Educator, Advocate, Eating Disorder Survivor
Psychiatrist Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt trained at New York University and served as Medical Director for the State of Nevada Division of Mental Health before delving into developing comprehensive treatment programs for eating disorders in 2003. Prior to starting digitally-native Within Health, she founded several nationally recognized treatment programs that are widely considered among the best of brick-and-mortar treatment. She is a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders, a Fellow of the International Association of Eating Disorders, and was one of the founding members of the Binge Eating Disorders Association, which has now merged with the National Eating Disorders Association. Wendy received her specialty training at New York University-Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She has also held faculty positions at New York University, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, and University of Nevada School of Medicine, where she first developed her passion as a mentor and educator. She is also an eating disorder survivor.
Contacts
Gail Gitcho
ggitcho@withinhealth.com
