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Treatment of patient with an eating disorder

Posted By junezx44

"Treatment of patient with an eating disorder"

About: Mental Health Services SMHS / Fiona Stanley Hospital / Mental Health Services

(as a carer),

I want to take the opportunity to thank the staff of Fiona Stanley Hospital (Youth Mental Unit). We are very grateful for how they treat our child while re-feeding and getting to a better mental health state. 

I think there is a lack of services for people 18 years + after discharge from being an inpatient. 

Eating Disorders take time to recover from. It is a mental illness, it is not a choice. I believe just 2 beds available for over 18 year-olds is not enough.

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 4/02/2020 at 4:32 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 5:45 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear junezx44,

Thank you for the positive feedback on the work being done at the Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) Youth Unit (YoU) for young people aged 16-24 with eating disorders.

We developed our co-morbid eating disorder pathway within YoU in response to demand that we cannot ignore if we strive to provide excellent care to our patients. It is great to hear that we are achieving this for those patients that come to our service.

We agree that it is difficult to meet the demand for this age group, especially since 16-18 year olds have very limited other public options. We often have a wait list for the beds, but work collaboratively with other services to support the care of patients on our wait list, and during discharge planning.

FSH Youth Community Assessment and Treatment Team (YCATT) works with YoU to provide short term follow up and treatment in the community within the South Metropolitan Area. We have noticed the increasing number of youth with co-morbid eating disorders being looked after by YCATT which echoes the level of unmet need for community services in this area which you mention.

We recognise the need for inpatient and community services to be able to provide patients with eating disorders aged 16 + who are not eligible for continuing care with the Perth Children’s Hospital Eating Disorders Program and those 18+, with excellent care and evidence based treatment. We continue to work in partnership with WA Eating Disorders Outreach and Consultation Service (WAEDOCS) to develop services in this high needs area.

As you highlighted, these are ongoing disorders needing ongoing treatments that cannot be provided in hospitals alone, and excellent community interventions will support our efforts to minimise time spent in hospital.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us about your experience.

Kind regards

Neil Doverty

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Update posted by junezx44 (a carer)

Hi,

Thanks for taking time to reply and glad to hear there is an ongoing partnership with WAEDOCS to develop services with evidence-based treatment.

I am still at lost about setting Safe Minimum Weight. According to my readings the curve of growth of the patient should be used to set an appropriate weight which will help to nourish the brain and start recovery.

I like the idea of working with a range of BMI during admission and not telling the patient the exact weight. I think trying to get the patient not to be fixated in a weight, especially when the "Safe Minimum Weight" has been set low, is a must.

Additional I think more "treatment services" need to be included in the evidence base treatment how to treat patients with eating disorders that can be on the autism spectrum if not diagnosed yet.

Will FSH consider an outpatient service to treat eating disorders after discharged from the YMHU? I am very disappointed my child could not continue the good work they did with the clinical psychology while inpatient.

My child in the past has not been able to engage in therapy with clinical psychology. They did while inpatient FSH, now they have been discharged, they are still struggling and have not been able to continue with therapy. I think this keeps the patient in a cycle of struggles and then they relapse when they can't do it anymore by themselves and support of family.

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 18/02/2020 at 7:13 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 19/02/2020 at 9:54 AM

picture of Neil Doverty

Thank you for your response.

We agree that patients require both medical and psychiatric assessment and we encourage you to continue to work with your child’s treating team to set individualised, recovery-oriented goals of care. We no longer use BMI as the sole determinant when assessing a young person with an eating disorder and we agree that focusing on an exact weight as the goal is no longer considered best practice.

Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) is working with North Metropolitan Health Service / WA Eating Disorders Outreach and Consultation Service and the Mental Health Commission to address the gap in services for patients requiring specialist eating disorder services both inpatient and community. While this implementation plan is progressing, FSH is working towards providing an interim service for those patients from South Metropolitan Health Service while the Statewide plan is being developed.

Your feedback is invaluable to us and would encourage you to feedback your experience through your child’s treating team.

Kind regards,

Neil Doverty

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