Hi Yorkietalkjilly,
Sadly there is only one residential treatment center in canada. It is in B.C and it was started by three mothers who had lost their daughter to an eating disorder. It only has space to treat 8 and only adults. I know that this sounds insane but there are no other centers. There are some private out patient clinics but they are very costly and having spent all of our money ( we even cashed out all of our retirement savings) to treat her so far we simply have nothing left. They only thing we have now is the house and if we sell that we are truly headed for total disaster. We did send our DD to Utah to a place called Avalon Hills. She was there for 5 months. When she came home she was amazingly healthy. She was strong in body mind and soul. However once back in Canada she no longer had any support outside of her family. In the states after a child leaves residential treatment they enter transitional treatment and finally outpatient treatment. With that system of support in place a patient does very well and the outcomes are often wonderful. In my daughters case she came home and all she got was 2 hours a month of medical monitoring. The treatment ended when she came home. She started to struggle and had nowhere to get support. As her mom I am here to listen and comfort and although I never judge and I provide non-stop unconditional love I am not a trained professional. Most mental health professional do not treat someone with an eating disorder because as her doctor at the clinic put it ED's are the cancer of the mental health community. They are VERY difficult to treat. Recovery is very hard to reach and almost impossible without the right support. In the past 5 years I have researched constantly looking for help. I have found resources that the clinic was unaware of. The bottom line sadly is that there is almost nothing here for children or adults with an eating disorder. I could send her back to the states but in order to get her there I would require money and I would also require OHIP (government) approval.
The only way that the government sends a child to the US is if the child will die in a short period of time without help. My DD literally has to be on her death bed in order to be offered proper treatment. Thats why she was sent the first time, we were told that there was nothing more that the hospital could do and that unless the government approved her application for out of country treatment she was going to die.
Our health care system is beyond broken. There is almost no funding for eating disorders. Our government provides 14.6 million dollars per year for the entire province for the treatment of eating disorders. I have been very active in my pursuit of change. I have been in contact with politicians and have been interviewed by the media and have appeared on national tv in an attempt to force our government to see what is happening. I have met many young girls with this illness one young girl was in hospital on a feeding tube as she had been sick for some time... she was nine years old. It is a crisis but as there is a stigma surrounding mental illness many families feel shame or guilt and say nothing. Thats why there is no money because politicians will fund whatever gets them votes.
Sorry now I am ranting. I wish that I could tell you that I hadn't researched my little heart out and that there could be help available for our family but there isnt. There are prayers and love and so long as our country ignores the issue thats about the best we can do. I cling to the hope that she will not get as bad as she was. She is still hanging in there. She has lost a fair amount of weight since leaving Utah but so far not enough to require intervention medically. I have been trying to pay down the insane amount that we owe from our battle to save her as my greatest fear is that is was round one.
Thank you for your prayers. I truly believe in the power of prayer and that God IS taking care of me through all of this.
And thank you so much for all of your advice. You put a great deal of time and effort into your post in an attempt to help, that means so much to me.
Tina (hugs) |