Families concerned about eating disorder treatment at Monash Children’s Hospital

Desperate parents and patients are pleading for government help to stop teenagers with life-threatening eating disorders from being kicked out of a treatment unit.

Teens with life-threatening eating disorders are getting kicked out of a vital adolescent treatment unit in Melbourne’s southeast early and without support due to a lack of funding.

Desperate parents and ­patients have asked the state and federal governments to ­urgently fix the troubled funding model, warning that under-­resourcing at Monash Children’s Hospital is traumatising patients and putting their recoveries at risk.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed that amid an 80 per cent spike in eating disorder cases since the pandemic, children were being admitted for help only once they were near death.

Monash Health last year was due to overhaul its eating disorder treatments so youths could have longer physical and mental health treatments, stopping a situation in which a staggering 40 per cent were ­re-admitted after discharge.

There are fears under-­resourcing at Monash Children’s Hospital is traumatising patients and putting their recoveries at risk.

But the Herald Sun can ­reveal that this planned change has been plagued with delays due to a lack of funding from governments.

The state government had promised a new eating disorder strategy as early as June last year but a spokeswoman said it was still “taking the time” to get it right.

Eating Disorders Victoria chief executive Belinda Caldwell slammed the delay as disappointing.

“Victorians impacted by eating disorders bravely shared their lived experience to ­inform the new strategy, with the expectation that their contributions will enable real ­improvements to the system of care,” Ms Caldwell said.

Eating Disorders Victoria chief executive Belinda Caldwell says the delay is disappointing. Picture: Supplied

Pakenham father Robb Evans’s 15-year-old daughter Olivia died with anorexia last year and he’s been fighting to improve services ever since.

“Every single thing that we kind of asked for Liv … they said ‘we don’t have the resources’, ‘we’re not set up to do that’,” he said.

“That’s a funding issue.”

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel said she was “extremely concerned” about the chronic under-resourcing.

She said an outpatient team was needed to help families with released patients because this would “ease the trauma”, end the revolving door of readmissions, and take pressure off the stretched hospital system.

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel is concerned about the under-resourcing. Picture: Martin Ollman

“We cannot continue to allow Monash to operate like this,” Ms Daniel said.

“It doesn’t have the funding to keep up with the demand for eating disorders treatment. State and federal governments need to put their heads together and figure this out rather than each blaming the other while families are collapsing.”

A Monash Health spokesman said the hospital had many admissions seeking care for complex eating disorders.

“We are delivering the highest quality care within current resources for people with eating disorders, working towards an eating disorder enhanced specialist model, which provides access to specialist mental health eating disorder units that integrate mental health and physical health care,” he said.

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