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Lack of services for some people with an eating disorder

Posted By giraffesr57

"Lack of services for some people with an eating disorder"

About: Eating Disorders Program Perth Children's Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

My child was assessed by the Eating Disorder Team at Perth Children’s Hospital in 2018 and was an inpatient for six weeks, with a day program for a further six weeks.

Subsequent readmission in early 2019 for 4. 5 weeks and then a six-week day program. Then three or four weekly follow up medical appointments. Several months later, we were told by the Care Coordinator they were going on long service leave and my child could transfer to the adolescent medicine team. Did not get an appointment with the adolescent doctor until 3 months later who was concerned and referred my child back to the Eating Disorders Team. The adolescent doctor said if we felt concerned to go to the Emergency Department.

We went to the PCH Emergency Department the next month and were told to go back to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and the GP.  I believe that neither of these places are expert in eating disorders. I have since received a letter from the Eating Disorders Program refusing to take my child back into the program. I’m very disappointed in the lack of care and concern shown.  

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Responses

Response from Dr Vineet Padmanabhan, Head of Department - Community CAMHS, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service 4 years ago
Dr Vineet Padmanabhan
Head of Department - Community CAMHS,
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

Submitted on 13/01/2020 at 12:40 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 12:45 PM

Dear giraffesr57,

Firstly, please accept my apology that you have felt unsupported on your journey with your child's illness. I’m sorry that you have encountered roadblocks in accessing care for your child and for the confusion with regards to which service was most suitable to treat them. This is not in line with our organisational vision or values.

I appreciate how distressing and frustrating this must have felt as a parent. We have received feedback from families accessing our Eating Disorders Service that the patient journey can seem unnecessarily complicated from the families’ perspective. We have taken this feedback on board and in 2019 commenced a review of our Eating Disorder Service. This review has been informed by the wants and needs of families’ such as yours and we are confident will result in a Service that is evidenced-based and in line with best practice internationally.

The Eating Disorder Service is part of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). We work closely with our Community CAMHS teams and General Practitioners (GPs). Wherever possible, we share the care of young people who are attending our services. We strive to communicate with the young person’s GP at every stage of their journey. Sharing care with Community CAMHS and GPs minimises disruption to the lives of the young people accessing our service by ensuring that they do not need to travel unnecessarily, can continue to attend school and maintain their social contacts. It is not unusual for children and young people to be transferred back to a community CAMHS team or their GP when they are no longer medically compromised. Unfortunately, the nature of these illnesses is that their physical state can deteriorate, necessitating re-referral.

Risk and Management Plans are important aspects of care and treatment provided to young people and their families. It is always recommended that young people present to an Emergency Department out of hours and or between appointments if parents feel unable to manage their risk (physical or mental health).

It would appear that the rationale for the decisions made with regards to your child's care was not clearly explained to you at the time. I would like to apologise for this experience as it does not meet our organisational values of collaboration and accountability. I will feed this back to the service to inform future communication and clinical practice.

Thank you for sharing your concerns and I hope my response has provided some clarity. I understand you may still looking for an appropriate service for your child I request that you consider providing us with some personal details so we can review your child's treatment in the past, the care that is currently being provided and if we can facilitate further care for your child.

Please contact our Child and Family Engagement Service on 6456 0032 or via email to CAHSFeedback@health.wa.gov.au to provide the above information so that we can investigate this further.

Please accept my best wishes for your child's recovery.

Dr Vineet Padmanabhan

Medical Co-Director

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by giraffesr57 (a parent/guardian)

Thank you for responding. My child has been seeing a CAMHS psychologist and psychiatrist since a few years ago which is still ongoing, plus has had the same GP with whom we have regular appointments. Although these people provide a vital service to my child it appears to me they are not the “experts” in the area of eating disorders, in my opinion. Obviously they are aware my child has an eating disorder.

I believe eating disorders have two aspects that need to be addressed, namely nutrition and physical health and the other being mental health. My child is currently an inpatient at Perth Children’s Hospital.

I will admit to being annoyed as rather than a letter to us all we received when the Adolescent Medicine Doctor referred my child back to EDP as PCH was a “cc” on the bottom of the EDP letter.

I will contact you further through the contact details provided. Thank you for your response.

Update posted by giraffesr57 (a parent/guardian)

My child is now an inpatient and I have provided further feedback through the customer liaison officer.

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