Family calls for more treatment

Every day, Jessica Bonish struggles to eat.

Bonish started battling anorexia in high school, but her mental illness has worsened over the past number of years.

The 21-year-old sees a dietitian, but Bonish says her obsession with weight and eating would be so much easier to handle if health professionals in Regina took a team approach to treating eating disorders.

“The health-care system has resources to feed you and medicate you for depression, if that’s an issue, but not other supports,” she said. “You also have to work on the emotional aspect.”

Her mother, Wendy Bonish, would like a treatment centre for eating disorders to be set up in Regina. Short of that, a counsellor trained specifically in eating disorders who works closely with a dietitian and psychiatrist to treat patients would be an improvement.

“I’d like it co-ordinated so that the dietitian is talking to the psychiatrist ... It’s important that the message from the dietitian and the counsellor be the same and that they know what each other is saying to Jessica,” Wendy said.

The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) doesn’t have a specialized eating disorder team, said Glenna Curry, the region’s director of mental health and addictions services.

“What the RQHR does provide is a multi-disciplinary approach so an individual who would present with challenges of eating and weight would receive clinical support through the services of a registered psychologist or a registered clinical social worker with a mental health background,” Curry said. “In addition to that, an individual would receive the services of a dietitian that’s employed with the RQHR.”

Referrals are triaged at an outpatient clinic. Based on the severity of symptoms, a psychiatric consultation is available, so the psychiatrist becomes part of that team, Curry added.

She noted the RQHR does not get a large volume of referrals for eating disorders.

Currently, therapy is provided to fewer than 10 adults with a diagnosed eating disorder. Although a number of clients with eating issues are seen, their conditions don’t meet the criteria for a diagnosis of an eating disorder.

Adults with eating concerns can reach a registered psychologist and social worker by calling 306-7667800 and speaking with the intake worker at the Adult Mental Health Clinic.

Bonish’s search for a team of specialists in eating disorders goes back a couple of years.

In June 2012, Bonish sought help at BridgePoint Center for Eating Disorders, a provincial residential program located in Milden, about 20 kilometres west of Outlook.

While there, Bonish became medically unstable and was sent to a Regina hospital emergency room.

“I was told that I wasn’t an emergency, that all my tests came back normal and I could just go home,” Bonish said. “I was extremely underweight and could barely stand.”

At her mother’s insistence, Bonish was admitted to the hospital’s mental health unit.

“The staff who work on the mental health unit aren’t equipped to treat eating disorders,” Jessica said. “They were extremely helpful and extremely supportive, but they just don’t have that training to deal with the psychological aspects of eating disorders.”

After she was discharged from hospital, Bonish began seeing a dietitian regularly, but she says those consultations don’t address the anxiety and fear that accompany an eating disorder.

Neither Bonish nor the health region is aware of the existence of a local support group for people with eating disorders.

Now that the young woman is eating properly, Bonish said she has the strength to advocate for more services, including support for families affected by eating disorders.

With an adult client’s permission, the family can attend RQHR therapy sessions as well as receive education about eating disorders, suggestions on how to support the individual and reports on progress of therapy.

That support wasn’t offered to the Bonish family.

“My mom said that nobody ever told them that it wasn’t their fault, nobody ever told them how to support me, nobody told them what to expect when I came home,” Jessica said. “My parents really struggle because it’s an emotional roller-coaster.”