Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series on eating disorders.
Eating disorders affect about three per cent of the population. The fastest and largest group being hospitalized for eating disorders is children and youth between the ages of 10 and 19.
Dr. Laird Birmingham, professor and director of the eating disorders program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia (UBC), said part of the problem in treating eating disorders is that "there are very few experts and very little funding for this severe illness."
Birmingham said he's a firm supporter of the Looking Glass Foundation and their passionate commitment to opening a treatment centre on the Sunshine Coast. Cynthia Dobbe, one of the three founders of the Looking Glass Foundation, said the foundation is very lucky to have Birmingham supporting them.
Besides his work at UBC, Birmingham is also an associate member of the departments of medicine, health care and epidemiology and of pharmacology and clinical therapeutics. He is medical director of eating disorders program at St. Paul's Hospital and an epidemiologist in the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences where he is team leader of the B.C. Eating Disorders Epidemiology Project and provincial director for eating disorders. Girls and women still make up more than 80 per cent of people suffering and being hospitalized with eating disorders. Even so, Birmingham said there is a growing trend of boys and men developing eating disorders. In fact, he said about 20 per cent of people with eating disorders in Canada are male.
Some of the most prevalent forms of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, where a person's self-perception of their body size is so distorted that they starve themselves; bulimia nervosa, where a persona alternately binge eats and then purges themselves through vomiting, laxatives or over exercising; and binge eating disorder (BED), where a person overeats to excess. According to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre (www.nedic.ca), "the death rate for eating disorders is high: it ranges between 18 per cent (in 20-year studies) and 20 per cent (in 30-year follow-up studies). The annual death rate associated with anorexia is more than 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all other causes combined for females between 15 and 24 years old."
As well, says the NEDIC, "eating disorders are now the third most common illness in adolescent girls it is estimated that three per cent of women will be affected by eating disorders in their lifetime."
Dobbe said the problem with all eating disorders is the stigma they hold and the lack of community understanding. She said most people erroneously believe that all a person has to do is start eating to be well, and many people don't realize that eating disorders are a very real mental health issue that goes beyond simple will power.
Dobbe said treatment as early as possible is the main focus of the Looking Glass Foundation's push to open a treatment centre on the Sunshine Coast where they have a donated parcel of land to build on. She said the treatment focuses on having a safe, secure and beautiful facility with 24-hour staffing during a patient's time and a stay that can range from 30 to 60 days. The girls and young women work individually and in groups with a team of specialized professionals to help them understand their unique reasons for having an eating disorder and for each of them to learn how they can recover from it. Usually a team can have a psychologist, therapist, psychiatrist, dietitian and nurses.
As well, Dobbe said family members are key to the treatment process and there is a week where families stay either at the centre or close by and have daily contact with their family members. Dobbe said the proposed 30-bed treatment facility will look like an oversize home at around 7,500 square feet. She said while they expect to start with around 10 beds or so, the extra bed capacity means that families who don't have the economic resources to stay in the community will be able to stay close to their family member during the family weekend. As well, Dobbe said the treatment program will never extend beyond the 30-bed capacity for the life of the centre nor does the bed capacity in any way change the size or scope of the proposed building.
