Revealed: Concerning trend of bush teens landing in hospital with eating disorders

The number of regional kids coming to hospital with an eating disorders has risen by 60 per cent in just four years but a new specialist centre offers a new hope for treatment.

The number of regional and rural teens developing eating disorders has rapidly escalated in the past five years with a shortage of primary care to blame for patients falling through the cracks.

In 2017, 1533 patients presented for eating disorders in regional and rural hospitals.

In 2021, that number has ballooned to 2475 and is almost on par with presentations in Greater Sydney.

Teens are travelling away from their families and support networks to go interstate or to Sydney — either out of their own pockets or on funded placements from the government — in a desperate bid to seek help.

But the state’s first publicly funded eating disorder clinic, to be located in Newcastle, is expected to plug the gap in treatment while the government works to increase the number of general practitioners, nutritionists, psychologists and dietitians outside Sydney.

Julia Tomkins got specialised treatment for an eating disorder but had to travel interstate. Picture: Peter Mirkenstein

NSW Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor. Picture: Justin Lloyd

If successful, Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor has vowed to fight for funding in the budget to get more specialist clinics across the regions to save vulnerable young people from being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres away.

“We’ve always got to have centres of excellence. I don’t think it was right that there weren’t any services. Eating disorders are so insidious and so destructive. They really creep up on people,” she said.

Ms Taylor acknowledged that “serious” workforce shortages meant the problem can‘t be solved instantly but she hoped the clinic’s opening — expected to be mid 2023 — will be the turning point for this devastating trend.

The location, in Newcastle, was selected to lure specialists who may be hesitant to move their lives and families to more rural or remote locations.

Ms Taylor added that while the centre won‘t be close to every regional teen, an increase in travel and accommodation reimbursements for patients from the bush will help bridge the gap.

“This is a speciality and a really big issue and we are putting a really big unit behind it. I want to get this one up and running … once we have that I‘ll work so hard to make sure there is funding in the budget so we have more to come,” she said.

The new specialist centre will open mid-2023.

“I have seen eating disorders in so many young women but also in young men. We have to have these place. They need to know there is somewhere they can go.”

Albury local Julia Tomkins was diagnosed with anorexia as a 16-year-old teen thanks to a friend’s mum who picked up on the warning signs.

But despite the early diagnosis — getting help in her regional hometown was nearly impossible.

Ms Tomkins was able to find a dietitian in a neighbouring town but a critical shortage of specialist support, nutritionists and psychologists meant Ms Tomkins had to seek help in Sydney, Victoria and Queensland.

She says more specialist centres in the bush will help save young lives like hers without forcing them to travel interstate.

“I was really lucky that I found a phenomenal dietitian in Wodonga. But in terms of psychological help there was essentially nothing,” she said.

“I just can’t stress enough how important it is for these centres to keep growing. The number of eating disorders is growing rapidly and has been growing rapidly and these people need help irrespective of how they present, or how one professional has diagnosed them.”