The reality is that effective treatment does take time. But unlike in-person care, which requires you to put life on pause, virtual treatment lets you attend sessions when and where it works for you.
Equip patients fit treatment into their lives in many different ways. While many people take their sessions from home, we also have students joining from a teacher’s office at school, working adults dialing in from a break room, even patients attending appointments from a parking lot.
The initial two weeks of treatment are relatively intense in terms of the number of appointments, but after that, your provider team will work with you to schedule sessions at times that your busy life can accommodate.
Equip is in-network with most major insurance plans, and you can check your coverage with our insurance screener. Our team will also verify your insurance information before you start at Equip to make sure we are in-network for your insurance and review how your plan coverage will impact any cost share (copays or coinsurance) you may be responsible for. If Equip is not in-network with your insurance, we offer a private pay option. A financial counselor will work with you directly to review costs and options such as HSA/FSA eligibility.
To provide additional support, all Equip patients have the opportunity to work with a peer mentor throughout their time in treatment. All of our peer mentors have personal experience recovering from an eating disorder, and receive specialized mentorship training from Equip.
We encourage you to meet with your mentor to get to know them and their expertise, and to share with them your goals for treatment and peer mentor sessions. Some Equip families may meet with their mentors and find that they would like to connect with someone else, in which case our Care Experience team is available to assist you.
During the intake appointment with their Equip dietitian, patients and their supports receive a personalized recommendation around weight goals and monitoring. For young patients who need to gain weight, this generally means twice-weekly closed weights (formerly known as blind weights) at home. For adult patients, the decision to do open or closed weighing is decided on an individual basis, taking into account their treatment plan and preferences. All adult patients have the option of receiving a BodyTrace scale which enables at-home weight measuring without seeing the numbers, and sends data directly and discreetly to the patient's care team.
While weights are shared openly with parents and caregivers, we work with families to make a collaborative decision about whether it would be constructive to share weight numbers with younger patients. We also create a plan to handle potential responses triggered by doing so.
Who attends appointments depends on a few factors, including the age of the patient and which loved ones will be involved in treatment.
Certain appointments, like peer mentor sessions, are for the patient alone, while family mentor sessions are just for loved ones. For young patients doing family-based treatment (FBT), family members will be involved in more sessions, whereas older patients and those not doing FBT may have more solo appointments.
We encourage you to “bring your village” to treatment, because we know that doing so improves odds of lasting recovery. But we also know that looks different for each person, and we’ll work with you to find a balance that feels right.
