First national policy for treatment of eating disorders announced
TEACHERS, school counsellors and sporting codes will be taught to detect red flags for potentially deadly eating disorders.
NSW
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TEACHERS, school counsellors and sporting codes will be taught to detect early warning signs of potentially deadly eating disorders under the first ever national policy for treatment of the illnesses.
In the most significant reform to eating disorder policy to date, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has endorsed an agenda by the Butterfly Foundation to prevent adults and children as young as seven succumbing to the disease, which has the highest mortality rate and suicide risk of all psychiatric illnesses.
Only a quarter of people get treatment for their disorder with a staggering 97 per cent of health workers reporting they are not sufficiently trained to treat eating disorders despite more than one million Australians suffering from one.
As part of the agenda the Butterfly Foundation will receive $1.7 million to expand the ED Hope national helpline and another $1.2 million to boost the skills of medicos.
Butterfly Foundation chief executive Christine Morgan said they would also upskill people on the “frontline” so eating disorders are detected before they became “entrenched”.
People who have had an eating disorder for less than two years are likely to respond more quickly to treatment and have shorter illness with fewer physical health consequences.
“They might be teachers, school counsellors, people who work with sporting bodies. We want to be able to equip them so that if they see some warning signs they can say ‘let’s do something before it gets really entrenched’,” she said.
“Another key gap area is GPs. Eating disorders aren’t included in general curriculum for GPs so (we will) help GPs know what signs to look out for and then know what do.”
Under the agenda, in-home supports to reduce hospitalisation will increase as will efforts to reduce the treatment costs with one psychiatric appointment costing over $200.
Ms Morgan said sufferers need at least one to two appointments a week.
Eating disorder treatment specialists, like dietitians, are not covered by private health insurance or Medicare.
“It should be like cancer. If you get cancer in Australia in 2017 you just expect to get evidence based treatment that’s affordable and accessible and that’s the same with eating disorders,” Ms Morgan said.
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The National Agenda for Eating Disorders estimates the cost of the burden of eating disorders to be $52.6 billion — on par with obesity at $52.9 billion.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said he was determined to address the funding gaps for services for people with an eating disorder and he has asked the taskforce investigating Medicare to investigate the issue.
About 9 per cent of people and up to 15 per cent of females will be affected by an eating disorder in their lifetime.
Recover takes on average seven years but a quarter of people diagnosed with an eating disorder will have an enduring illness.
Butterfly’s National Helpline on 1800 33 4673
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