Eating disorder institute to bring complex treatments together for first time
Updated
Ash Myburgh started out just wanting to eat healthier and exercise.
Key points:
- First national centre for research and treatment in eating disorders will 'save lives'
- 1 million Australians live with eating disorders, including anorexia
- Eating disorders have the highest mortality of any mental illness
But after her diet became more and more restrictive, and losing "a considerable amount of weight too quickly", she realised she was struggling with something much more sinister.
"It was more an internal thing of how I started to view food, I was afraid of it and scared of eating," she said.
She said she was fortunate to find a GP who specialised in mental health and eating disorders, so she could get swift diagnosis and in-patient treatment for anorexia.
"I was very lucky to have access to that treatment because I come from a big city so there were services around me," she said.
But wanting to lose weight is just one part of having some eating disorders.
Until now, access to therapies for eating disorders such as anorexia has been haphazard, with patients and their families saying accessing good medical care has been difficult.
For the first time, patients across Australia will get better access to streamlined and proven treatments for a range of complex eating disorders.
A new centre, called the InsideOut Institute, to be based at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, will be a one-stop shop for research, education and innovative treatments for eating disorders.
Centre director Dr Sarah Maguire said people with eating disorders could make a full recovery, if they get proper treatment.
"We have one of the highest mortality rates for an illness that is curable," she said.
"If we have treatments that work, and we can bring about remission, why are they not reaching the people who need them early in the illness?"
The centre will develop an e-clinic to ensure patients in regional and rural Australia can get help.
Patients and their families suffering
If you or anyone you know needs help with an eating disorder:
- Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673
- National Eating Disorders Collaboration
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
- MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978
- Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
- Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36
- Headspace on 1800 650 890
More than 1 million Australians live with an eating disorder, with concerns over body image ranked in the top three concerns for young people.
The announcement about the new centre comes in the wake of ABC stories revealing the devastating impact eating disorders has in Australia.
Many families said they found it difficult to get treatment, with some doctors not taking their concerns seriously.
Ms Myburgh believes the institute will be a game-changer.
"It will inform clinicians of how to diagnose properly, which means we can allow for early intervention and potentially more lives get saved," she said.
Dr Maguire said patients with eating disorders had suffered stigma.
"There has been an unhelpful conflation of those very extreme images we see of people with an eating disorder and the 'thin ideal' in our culture and it tends to minimise the illness, its severity and its impact," she said.
"It really bears no relation at all to the internal experience of a person that has this mental illness.
"So we have an awful lot of education to do in order to dispel those untruths, those myths and educate people as to the real experience of the mental illness that is an eating disorder."
Health Minister Greg Hunt said bringing eating disorders out of the dark was essential to drive change.
"I applaud the InsideOut Institute's mission to further transform the Australian treatment landscape for eating disorders through collaboration, innovative research and by challenging perceptions and stigma," he said.
Topics: eating-disorders, diseases-and-disorders, health, australia, sydney-2000
First posted
