A social rather than medical approach to understanding and treating eating disorders in young women, developed by a University of Queensland academic, has led to the establishment of a new public health service .
Social Work and Social Policy Department lecturer Jenny Gilmore developed many of the techniques used at the new Queensland Health-funded Isis Centre for Women's Action on Eating Issues at Stones Corner, where she is also a consulting social worker.
She said so far, 50 young women aged between 12 and 25 had been treated through the Centre. Isis is funded by an initial $120,000 grant from Queensland Health's Mental Health Branch and employs one full-time social worker and one part-time administrative staff member.
It arose from Ms Gilmore's successful counselling of many young women with eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia and over-eating while she worked one day a week with the Zig Zag Young Women's Resource Centre in Camp Hill.
The success of her approach linking disorders to issues such as low self-esteem and perceived powerlessness led to Ms Gilmore being inundated with cases and a strong argument being made for Isis. It has been estimated that as many as one in 20 young Australian women have some form of eating disorder with around 10 percent dying from the condition.
'Isis is believed to be the first non-medical, community-based service in Australia for young women with eating disorders. We've had inquiries from interstate and international health authorities about our model,' she said.
She said the approach she developed and used at the clinic involved understanding and treating eating disorders as social rather than medical problems.
'As around 95 percent of people affected by eating disorders are women - many of these young women - we examine the problem in terms of women's position in society, self-esteem, power and control,' Ms Gilmore said.
'Eating issues are essentially obsessions with food and obsessions usually develop with something or someone in order to conceal a far greater and more substantial conflict. In other words, the eating issue is not so much the problem as it is the ?solution' to a far greater problem.'
Ms Gilmore said through traditional counselling as well as other techniques such as drawing, story-telling and support group discussion, Isis staff aimed to help young women discover the nature of the greater problem.
'In my experience, these young women need people to listen, support and assist as they attempt to regain a sense of inner peace. One consistent theme which emerges is a fundamental and deep-seated loss of self-esteem - I believe it is rare to find a group of people who feel so consistently and fundamentally negative about themselves,' she said.
Around half of the women seeking help already had some experience of hospitalisation or medical treatment with all reporting it was ineffective and unhelpful.
'The medical profession tends to approach eating disorders as a physiological, biological or hormonal problem. For example, a woman with severe anorexia nervosa can be hospitalised, force-fed through an intravenous drip and observed 24 hours a day,' Ms Gilmore said.
'She loses her rights and privacy under the current hospital model based on a reward and punishment system. For example, she is told if you eat your six meals a day, you can telephone your mother or wear your own clothes.
'This method is often ineffective as the underlying reason for the behaviour is not addressed. Many young women revert to old behaviours once discharged.'
Ms Gilmore said eating issues such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia commonly emerged at age 10-12 in girls often regarded as high achievers and perfect children in the family.
'These girls and women conform to expectations and tend to be highly intelligent, incredibly insightful, determined and powerful. Their eating disorders develop as a response to incidents in which they feel powerless. Consuming or not consuming food is seen as something they can control,' she said.
For more information, contact Ms Gilmore (telephone 3365 2316).
