Editorial
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The Illawarra health district has gone to great lengths to detail its commitment to helping residents living with eating disorders.
When asked by the Mercury what has changed in 10 years – since courageous young women told their stories – the service provided a statement.
In 2017-18, it spent more than $420,000 on eating disorder services and developed its own Eating Disorders Plan.
The NSW Ministry of Health has funded an Eating Disorder Coordinator – part time – to provide “clinical consultation and support to teams treating people with eating disorders”.
The district offers two specialist outpatient eating disorder services: the Illawarra Eating Disorder Service and the Shoalhaven Eating Behaviours Service. The services work with GPs to ensure a “multidisciplinary approach to care”.
The Illawarra service is staffed by a part-time senior psychologist and a part-time psychologist and a full time dietitian.
It “maintains a close working relationship” with the psychiatry team at Wollongong Hospital to “help meet the mental health needs of people with an eating disorder admitted to hospital”.
So why is it, that any of the young women who told their stories years ago are still struggling.
They say the Illawarra service is overworked and understaffed.
But the glaring fact in all of this, is what has been left unsaid. Yes, there’s a handful of public eating disorder beds in Sydney, as the district rightly points out.
Yes there’s also private eating disorder inpatient treatments at five Sydney sites.
But there are no beds here for the chronically ill eating disorder patients.
And most can’t afford the private options.
The brave women who’ve repeatedly told their stories to the Mercury over the past 10 years are still struggling.
They’re still back and forth to Sydney, in and out of treatment.
One young woman has given hope altogether.
So what will it take for us as a community to stand together and fight for the people in the grips of an eating disorder.
When will we stop giving them the silent treatment?
The Mercury says it’s time now. Let’s lobby our politicians to push for the establishment of a dedicated eating disorder unit as part of the Shellharbour Hospital redevelopment.
