Colorado requires middle, junior high and high school coaches in public and private schools to attend training on mental health. Currently, training is required to cover concerns specific to young athletes such as anxiety disorders, depression and suicide prevention.

These training requirements result from 2026 legislation called Alyssa’s Youth Concussion and Mental Health Protection Act. It was named after a young athlete who died by suicide at age 13, following mental health struggles likely connected with multiple concussions.

But these trainings could also address an overlooked mental health struggle: eating disorders. If eating disorders were also included, Colorado could increase coaches’ ability to identify and support athletes who are at risk of or who have an eating disorder.

I am an eating disorder clinician and researcher, youth volleyball coach of 12 years and former youth athlete. In my clinical work with eating disorders, many of my patients are athletes. Addressing their concerns related to eating, body image and athletics is complex.

Alyssa’s act does not explicitly include eating disorder education. If it did, I believe this law could dramatically increase coaches’ abilities to identify and support athletes who have or are at risk of an eating disorder.

Consequences of eating disorders

In Colorado alone, 501,370, or about 9% of Coloradans, will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime, according to Harvard’s Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders. As the thinnest state in the nation, Colorado may face particularly strong pressures for disordered eating.

A 2020 report on the social and economic cost of eating disorders in the United States found that eating disorders cost Colorado an estimated US$1.1 billion annually in healthcare costs, lost productivity........

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