Arizona’s longest-running Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for eating disorders turned 20 last week.

Based in Fountain Hills and serving clients clinically in Scottsdale, Healthy Futures offers comprehensive treatments for those dealing with eating disorders. Their services include IOPs for eating disorders in adults and teens, emotional eating, mental health, general counseling, somatic experience therapy, dialectical behavior therapy and reduced-fee counseling for those seeking help but lack insurance or experiencing financial hardship.

Since their start in 2002, Clinical Director and Founder of Healthy Futures Mia Elwood says she’s seen tremendous change in her line of work. One major change is a spotlight focus on depression and anxiety disorders, which are now included in general physical exams and screened by patients’ primary care physicians.

Another is the shifting landscape of disorders, Elwood said, who has seen a change in focus from childhood obesity in the mid- to late-90s to illnesses like emotional or binge eating disorders.

“Binge eating wasn’t even a diagnosis back then,” Elwood said. “It just became a diagnosis in the last 10 years.”

As mental, physical and behavioral health disorders become more commonplace, Elwood has noticed an uptick in the willingness to become vulnerable, especially amongst men.

“It’s become more OK to say maybe you struggle as a male than it was 10 to 20 years ago,” Elwood said, suggesting that the pandemic has pushed men to be more open about their struggles and because a great deal more is known about mental illness now than ever before.

The pandemic, by far, has been one of the toughest challenges Healthy Futures has faced over the last two decades, which last year lost a staff member due to COVID.

“The last three years have definitely weathered my soul, like a whole bunch of other people,” Elwood said. “Mental health-wise on our staff as well as our patients and the community, awful, awful, awful. I don’t think us human animals were built to withstand so much stress and change all at once.”

For the foreseeable future, Elwood and her team have elected to remain hybrid, partly in-office and partly online, citing a need from clients who live in remote areas like Yuma, Ariz., who are unable to come to the office regularly.

“Even though we very much value [in-person] and we think it’s superb, we’ve kind of found the blend to be really helpful,” she said.

Initially started with two employees (Elwood and her colleague, Kim Feinstein) Healthy Futures currently employs 20 providers including therapists, mental health counselors, nutritionists, dieticians and clinical providers. They also enlist Gus, a miniature poodle and support specialist who is important to the therapy process and a wonderful listener.

Throughout the last 20 years, Elwood has made it her mission to maintain steady, manageable growth at Healthy Futures, holding a belief that many large, corporate-run programs like Healthy Futures – despite achieving economies of scale – lose out on a deeper, more personalized connection with clients; the kind of connection that the staff at Healthy Futures hope to achieve.

“I am proud of being a Fountain Hillbilly,” Elwood said. “It’s a small-town kind of atmosphere where people are friendly to each other and we’re warm and it's safe…that’s the feel that I’ve always wanted for Healthy Futures and that’s why I don’t have big corporate plans or anything, I just want it to feel like home.”

Elwood wants her community to not be afraid to reach out for help for themselves or for a loved one because mental health support is more accessible now more than ever. Elwood says she is always willing to provide referrals if their services aren’t a fit for those seeking help.

“As a social worker, I have always found access to support and affordability is important,” she said.

“We take most insurances for our eating disorder programing and take several insurances for outpatient counseling sessions.”

Looking to the future, Elwood expects new research to come out due to the trauma healing and telehealth therapy that has become commonplace during the pandemic. She predicts a pivot in her industry toward healing those healthcare workers who have experienced a lifetime of trauma in a matter of a few years.

“I think that will be a lot of healing all of those who’ve been on the front lines of this,” she said. “Healing the healers is going to be sort of a next step.”

For more information on Healthy Futures, visit healthyfuturesaz.com or call 480-451-8500. Healthy Futures is registered in Fountain Hills with a clinic in Scottsdale, 8065 N. 85 Way, open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.