Eating Disorders Service: Responding To A Growing Health Threat

Eating disorders are becoming a national epidemic. What was once thought of as a passing fad affecting college co-eds has escalated into a variety of life-threatening diseases that can affect anyone.

From pre-teens to seniors, females to males, people from every socioeconomic class are developing eating disorders.

The healthcare community is just learning to respond to this growing health threat. We have learned that eating disorders are complex illnesses and that patients respond best to a combination of medical, nutritional, behavioral and psychiatric treatments. We have learned that treatment should change as patients make progress toward recovery -- and that it should be adjusted if patients have relapses. We have learned that we need to constantly evaluate patients' conditions and determine the treatments that best fit the patients' needs at any given time.

Walden Behavioral Care has responded to the evolving knowledge of eating disorders by becoming one of the first hospitals in the country to offer the full "continuum of care" for treating eating disorders. We offer:

• Inpatient care
• Residential care
• Partial hospitalization
• Intensive outpatient care

For those with advanced eating disorders, 24-hour monitoring and nursing care are essential. Treatment at this level stabilizes the patient in preparation for intensive behavioral, medical, nutritional and psychological therapy. Walden is one of only a few hospitals in the country to offer acute inpatient care in a specialized, dedicated program. Inpatient care typically lasts for a few weeks.

As patients progress, they advance to our residential program at Walden Place or our partial hospitalization program. For those who still need a structured, full-time program, Walden Place provides treatment in a comfortable, home-like setting. Partial hospitalization is the recommended treatment for those who are not quite ready to make the transition from fulltime hospital care to independent living. It includes a daily, structured program, but patients return home each evening. Finally, intensive outpatient care is designed to help patients complete their readjustments and maintain healthy eating patterns.

Patients move in both directions within Walden's care system. When more intensive care is needed, it is available for them. As they gain control over their disorder, they move toward independent living. Because we provide a full range of treatment options, we can treat patients who are at any stage in their eating disorder. As a result, patients receive uninterrupted medical care as they advance toward lasting recovery.

Our Eating Disorders Service provides discrete, highly specialized treatment for patients 13 years and older with anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder and other eating disorders. Patients with eating disorders generally have psychiatric, behavioral, and medical conditions that need to be addressed as part of an overall wellness program. An individual with an eating disorder may, for example, also have depression or an addiction. Walden's "whole health" approach concurrently addresses the patient's mental and physical illnesses. A multidisciplinary team that includes internists, psychiatrists, psychologists, nutritionists, social workers, nurses, expressive-arts therapists and mental-health workers helps patients develop the skills necessary to gain control of destructive eating behavior, improve their support system, increase self-esteem and establish a stable foundation for long-term recovery.