Resources

As a healthcare professional, you may come across young people with different types of eating disorders and it’s your job to point them in the right direction. Whether you are a dietician, doctor, counsellor, psychologist or you have specialized in eating disorders for a number of years, you can appreciate how delicate and complex some situations can be.

Healthcare Advice: What is the Best Program for My Client’s Eating Disorder?

When it is time to select an appropriate residential treatment program, you know that your patient or client can no longer function in daily life due to their illness. Selecting a residential treatment program that offers a number of therapeutic approaches including individual, group and family therapy, as well as psychiatry and complementary modalities is in your client’s best interest.

Community-based and outpatient treatments: While this type of eating disorder treatment is always advised after a patient has completed a program at a residential treatment centre, community-based and outpatient treatments may not meet their needs during the first recovery phases of the program. It’s important to assess whether your patient needs full-time help that includes a number of multidisciplinary approaches or if he or she will truly benefit from a weekly support meeting. If lasting, positive changes are the goal, then it’s time to look at a longer, more intensive program.

Medication: If you are a psychiatrist or a doctor, you are probably aware that your patient might need medication in order to treat other related illnesses. Medications used in the treatment of various eating disorders can include SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), TCAs (tricyclics) and antiemetics. While the first two types of medications listed here are antidepressants (such as Prozac and Norpramin), the latter is a drug that has been designed to suppress vomiting and nausea, which may or may not be applicable to your client’s eating disorder treatment .

Nutritional advice and meal planning: Your client will need counselling and meal planning solutions in order to give him/her the skills needed to replace destructive and damaging patterns with healthy alternatives.

For some people, breaking an eating disorder cycle may require accessing more intensive services than are available in their local communities, and/or distancing themselves temporarily from the environment in which the disorder flourishes. The Woodstone Residence can provide a safe and supporting environment that can help break destructive behaviours.