WCAX Exclusive: Families welcome Vermont’s first high-level eating disorder clinic

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont’s first intensive outpatient eating disorder treatment center opens next week. The Kahm Center for Eating Disorders in Burlington comes after years of families and providers pushing for a local treatment center. As part of a special report, Cat Viglienzoni spoke with a mother who says having care close to home could potentially have saved her and her daughter months of suffering.

“We had an incredibly long journey,” said Alli Campbell, whose daughter, Kaia, began struggling with an eating disorder back in 2021.

The 15-year-old broke her hip and Campbell says it triggered the condition in the athletic teen. She says working with a therapist and a nutritionist to fight it wasn’t enough. “The care that she was getting was not nearly adequate,” she said. And Campbell says she quickly found out Vermont didn’t have any adequate care for Kaia. “There were no resources. There was nothing available for her at the level of care that she needed.”