Young children are desperately seeking treatment for eating disorders in South Australia’s hospitals

CHILDREN as young as 11 and women weighing as little as 32kg are desperately seeking treatment for serious eating disorders in South Australia’s hospital system.

CHILDREN as young as 11 and women weighing as little as 32kg are desperately seeking treatment for serious eating disorders in South Australia’s health system.

The doctors and nurses working to save their lives say an “immediate” injection of funds are needed to meet growing demand.

There are plans to expand a day clinic through private donations and the Opposition has pledged an extra $1 million a year if it wins Government at the March election.

Experts are urging both sides of politics to invest in early diagnosis and treatment, particularly of children.

Last year, there were 32 patients aged between 11 and 18 admitted at dangerously low weights to the Flinders Medical Centre paediatric ward for treatment, including forced feeding through nasal tubes.

In the past financial year 88 seriously unwell adults were also admitted to a specialist hospital ward via the Statewide Eating Disorder Service, including 18 who were re-admitted within the year.

Thirty two patients under the age of 18 were admitted to Flinders Medical Centre at dangerously low weights last year.

The head of the statewide service, Randall Long, told the Sunday Mail that an eating disorder was “one of the deadliest mental illnesses we know”.

“It is physically destructive but it also leads to a high rate of suicide. To get these people to eat, it’s their worst nightmare,” he said.

“It’s not about shape or weight, it’s about control and self-esteem.”

The Statewide Eating Disorder Service is funded to treat people aged 15 or older but growing demand prompted clinicians, led by senior paediatrician Dr Diana Lawrence, to develop a paediatric service at the FMC in early 2013.

It does not receive any dedicated funding and must rely on the existing hospital budget.

“It’s getting results but we need to invest in it. It needs an injection of support and funding, because early intervention is the way to go,” Dr Long stressed.

“It needs to be bigger. They need more staff, more resources, that’s clear.”

In one of the most serious cases relayed to the Sunday Mail during a tour of the FMC facilities, a 16-year-old girl who had not eaten any solid food for two years had to be monitored in intensive care for three months and visited daily by a psychiatrist.

Thanks to the work of experts she is now attending a day program and recovering. “She was dying. It saved her life,” Dr Lawrence said.

Other cases include an 80-year-old woman receiving psychiatric treatment after living with an eating disorder for 50 years, and a 35-year-old woman who only divulged her eating disorder of 20 years after ending up in the FMC emergency department.

Patients have presented to the ED with hypothermia, extremely low heart rates, brittle bones, metabolic problems, electrolyte imbalances and even an obstructed stomach.

It is rare for patients to need intensive care — just a couple a year are admitted to the ICU — but at least one a week is likely to present to the ED.

There are always about four eating disorder patients receiving treatment on the FMC general adult ward. The six beds in the specialist ward are always full and there is a waiting list.

There are usually two or three children being treated in the paediatric unit.

“They come in and they’re very unwell. The parents know something is wrong with their child, they see them fading before their eyes,” Associate Nurse Unit Manager Sandy Bridgland said.

Outside of hospital, support is offered through the statewide service outpatient clinic in Brighton.

There, patients visit four days a week to prepare and eat meals with dietitians, nurses, psychiatrists and psychologists.

“Some of these people have never sat at a table and eaten a meal with their family. Some people don’t know how to go shopping and purchase items for a sandwich,” service team manager Emma Altman explained.

The Flinders Foundation is working to raise funds to build a new outpatient clinic, three times larger than the current site. Flinders Foundation major projects director John Mannion said donations had been made to provide pet therapy and specialised items to help calm patients after eating.

“The new building will probably be around the $4 million (cost) mark. We have some very kind donors already but every dollar helps,” Mr Mannion said.

Mental Health Minister Peter Malinauskas said the State Government funded organisations to provide early intervention for people with eating disorders but he would “continue to look at ways we can best provide these services”.

UNDERSTANDING EATING DISORDERS

WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO YOUR BODY

* Psychiatrist Randall Long explains that when a person starves themself they switch on powerful mechanisms that are stored away in our primitive brain.

* Sufferers can’t think straight, their hormones switch off.

* They go from what is relatively normal dieting, exercise, weight loss to “a terrifying, out-of-control experience that is an eating disorder”.

* Extreme physical symptoms can include dangerously low weight, heart rate, body temperature (hypothermia) or blood pressure; poor bone density; heart problems; dehydration; low immunity; infections.

HOW MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS CAN HELP

* Early diagnosis is key.

* Experts including psychiatrists and psychologists, nurses, dietitians and social workers can help people diagnosed with an eating disorder to regain weight, understand the drivers behind their disease and change their behaviours in order to overcome the disease.

BUSTING MYTHS

* Developing an eating disorder is not a choice, it is a mental and physical illness.

* No one is to blame for developing an eating disorder.

* People living with an eating disorder may look healthy, despite being extremely ill.

* Eating disorders can affect people of any gender, age, ethnicity, body shape or socio-economic status.

* Genes and environment play key roles, but genes alone do not predict who will develop an eating disorder.

* Suicide rates are high among people diagnosed with an eating disorder, but full recovery is possible with early detection and professional help.

FOR HELP CONTACT:

* Statewide Eating Disorder Service 8198 0800 sahealth.sa.gov.au

* The Butterfly Foundation 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) thebutterflyfoundation.org.au

* For urgent medical problems call 000 or present to your local Emergency Department.

TO DONATE CONTACT:

Flinders Foundation 8204 5216 fmcfoundation.com.au