The concept of starting an eating disorder treatment center within the Norman/Oklahoma City area was born out of necessity. There was no place within Oklahoma City metro offering comprehensive treatment for eating disorders. After years of medical training, research into eating disorders and some careful planning, Living Hope Eating Disorder Treatment Center was founded on August 15, 2011.

The company was started with only two employees: myself and a medical assistant; offering outpatient services only. At that time, we were seeing one patient every two weeks. The phone didn’t ring much, but we believed if we did a great job of help people get better, things would improve. A few months in, we added a dietitian.

As we grew and patients began to find us, we realized that providing outpatient services only was not adequate help for our patients, so one year later, we found ourselves opening the first and only Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in the state of Oklahoma for eating disorders. Once again, this proved inadequate to meet all of our patient’s needs and so in January of 2016, we began offering a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP).

The more our patient population grew, the more apparent it became that we were still missing some logistics necessary to completely take care of those we have been charged to care for. We didn’t want our patients to travel out of state, or long distances to receive additional treatment. In the fall of 2017, we opened our Residential Treatment Center (RTC) for eating disorders. Somewhere along the way, we began to provide inpatient medical stabilization when needed in a local hospital, bringing patients safely through the medical complications of their eating disorders that are acutely dangerous to their lives.

Our treatment staff has grown, and become even more experienced at managing patients with eating disorders since opening our doors in August of 2011. It has also been a pleasure building relationships with patients and families who have trusted us with their lives. We will always strive to offer evidence-based, quality medical care to our patients, and to help them find a path towards recovery.

We fully believe that everyone can recover from their eating disorder, no matter the severity or length of time one has suffered. We help people in their endeavors for recovery every day. It is the best experience in the world to help someone through this process, to help them get their life back. It is a privilege we do not take lightly.

Many things have changed since our founding, but here at Living Hope our mantra remains the same: “Where there is Life, there is Hope.”

Meghan Scears, MD
Founder and Medical Director