We Are Here To Help
As the public navigates through yet another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may lose sight of the ‘shadow pandemic’ of eating disorders and the unprecedented toll this is putting on the public care system.
In July 2021, it was reported that admissions for eating disorders at Ontario’s five pediatric hospitals jumped to as much as 223 per cent above capacity in June 2021 as teens struggled amid the pandemic with isolation, a lack of routine, the loss of extracurricular activities and negative social media influences.
The demand for treatment of EDs has increased drastically across Canada and waitlists for outpatient assessment can be as long as 16 weeks for an acute assessment. The severity of the disorders has increased along with the rate of readmission, as patients are waiting longer for outpatient services or being treated in beds outside the special units with staff trained to manage eating disorders. This increase has also put a strain on healthcare staff physically and mentally.
The positive news is that at Change Creates Change, we are here to help share this load with community partners. We are fortunate to have some of the best clinicians in the country available to assist during this unprecedented time. We help offload the public health care system by providing an option for patients with extended health benefits and/or the financial means to access fee-for-service treatment options, but it also means that the waitlist for the public health care system is shorter as a result.
We hope that together we can reduce the growing rate of this pandemic and shed more light on its severity in our communities while we continue to advocate for a better health care system for eating disorder care in Canada.
Eating Disorder Care for Primary Care Providers
We are also sharing the load with community partners by offering an online Eating Disorder Care for Health Care Providers (EDC for HCP) course to educate clinicians in primary care about early eating disorder detection and treatment. This course provides clinicians with the foundational knowledge they need to help their patients who are living with eating disorders right away.
