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Eating Disorders - help is at hand
More than 15% or 92,400 Western Australians will have an eating disorder at some stage in their life. Until quite recently, there were virtually no treatment options for Western Australians over the age of 18 years.
In 2003, WOMEN’S Healthworks (WHW), a community based women’s health service in Joondalup was receiving an increasing number of calls about eating disorders. “We began to recognise that there were very few treatment options available for people over the age of 18 suffering from eating disorders,” said Louise Durack, Organisational Development Officer, WOMEN’S Healthworks.
In response, WHW coordinated a series of forums and workshops to help determine how to meet this need for services. In 2004, WHW successfully applied for a Lotterywest grant to run a two-year pilot project over 2005 and 2006 called the Body Esteem Program in WA.
The Body Esteem Program is an adaptation of a successful self-help model from the Netherlands. The program offered opportunities for women to learn effective strategies for gradually reducing and eliminating distressing and unhealthy eating behaviours in a supportive group structure. Participants ranged from young women who’d had an eating disorder for less than a year to women in their 50s and 60s who had been living with an eating disorder for decades.
People with eating disorders frequently have associated health problems such as depression, sleep disturbance and anxiety, bowel problems, issues with drugs or alcohol, and anxiety and panic around work. The success of the Body Esteem Program brings significant economic benefits through reduced medical costs and increased work or study participation, as well as immeasurable social benefits.
The overwhelmingly positive results of the pilot project have enabled WHW to secure funding from the WA Health Department to enable the project to continue in 2008 – 2009.
More information on upcoming groups at WOMEN’S Healthworks is available from www.womenshealthworks.org.au.