Anorexics shuffled between hospitals and many die, say therapists

THOUSANDS of people who suffer from eating disorders and distresses are misunderstood and neglected, according to the head of the Marino Therapy Centre in Dublin.

They are being shuffled from medical to psychiatric hospitals, neither of which understand their condition, director Marion Campion said yesterday.

The country has no specialist facility to meet their needs, despite the growing numbers with the condition. The nearest centres of care are in Britain, she said.

Until a unit for people with eating disorders is provided here, victims will continue to be misunderstood, misdiagnosed and shuffled from psychiatric to medical hospitals to die, said Ms Campion.

Most hospitals try to deal with the condition by force-feeding. And far too many psychiatric hospitals use drugs in an effort to subdue victims, she said.

Patients have told Ms Campion that their personal belongings have been taken from them in a last-ditch effort to force them to eat.

The Marino Therapy Centre has taken 9,000 distress calls from victims of eating disorders and distresses and their families over the past year alone.

Its eight therapists work up to seven days a week, sometimes from 10am right through until 10pm. The centre is the only one of its kind and has a 100% success rate. A lot of their clients stay in hospitals nearby. Some come once a week, others more often.

“I know what these people are going through because I myself suffered from anorexia,” said Ms Campion. “You can’t try to feed people without the necessary psychological back-up. It's impossible. Sufferers need a lot more back-up than they are getting.

“The need for self-destruction is in a victim’s head and that needs to be resolved before the body can get better. Eating disorders and distresses are not a young girl’s illness. I suffered myself, I know.

“There is so much wrong information out there. Families need support, not just support groups. They need to have instruction. People suffering need to be understood and not neglected, and that is what we are trying to do here.”

“We work to try to help them to re-train their thinking and deal with their efforts to self-destruct. Anyone can recover, we believe that and we see that. But the more treatment a person has before they come to us, the more difficult it is to help them, a lot of the time.”

The Marino Therapy Centre can be contacted on [phone] or helpline 01 8333063.