Illness, Hidden in Plain Sight

One of our favorite things to do is to shed light on healthcare topics and share powerful information with our readers. This time we’d like share with you an article from Catherine Boyle, Chief Operating Officer at Northfield Ministries, to touch on a subject few know about in detail but 24 million suffer from: eating disorders.

“If one illness killed more young women than all other illnesses combined, there would be just cause for alarm. Outraged groups would form, fighting to save lives. Prominent leaders would organize creative fundraisers for research. Scientists would tirelessly study until test-tube miracles resulted.

There is such an illness, hidden in plain sight, striking down predominantly women on the cusp of adulthood. This illness is eating disorders.

Some recent statistics reveal the devastating impact of eating disorders on our society:  24 million people in the United States have an eating disorder. For 86% of these people, the eating disorder started before age 20. Up to 30% of college-aged women are eating disordered.  Though eating disorders are typically thought of as young woman’s struggle, reality is that eating disorders know no age, gender or ethnic boundaries.

Once emotional, physical and spiritual condition, eating disorders typically take years to develop and years to recover from; If you recover.  Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate for all other mental illnesses combined, and are the number one cause of death for women aged 15 – 24.

The cost of lives lost to the eating disorder beast is incalculable, but the cost of treatment is readily available, and unfortunately it isn’t cheap:  one-week hospital stays average over $11,000 for an eating disorder patient, but each hospital stay also has significant costs for insurance companies, as well as the local, state and federal government (for Medicaid and indigent patients).  More importantly, hospital stays do not resolve the eating disorder, but are merely a band-aid to keep women alive, only to return to the same behaviors and environment that resulted in hospitalization. A vicious cycle of frequent hospitalizations often results, which means unstable and poor health for the patient, and consequentially, difficulties with employment and growing financial burdens.

Specialized treatment options are available but given the significant death rate and medical complications associated with eating disorder, most options are prohibitively expensive, often in the range of $2000/day and up.  Virtually all of the costs of specialized treatment are borne by individuals.

So, where is the outrage, the research, the funding?  Almost non-existent.  Eating disorders are significantly underfunded compared to other illnesses with similar rates of occurrence. Though eating disorders have been in our national vocabulary since the death of Karen Carpenter 30 years ago, the complexity and painful nature of the issues that make up eating disorders have resulted in a lack of significant financial and other tangible support.

Against formidable odds, one brave mom is on the forefront in the battle to rescue this generation from eating disorder.  Motivated by the multitude of young women who came to her through her church and the community, all seeking help with their eating disorders, Gwen Seiler. She dreamed of a place where women could break free from their eating disorders without bankrupting their families. In 2006, Northfield Ministries was born.

Northfield Ministries is a Richmond-based Christian non-profit working with women struggling with eating disorders, depression and self-harm. Northfield currently provides mentoring services and helps women and their families find care providers appropriate to their specific needs. The benefits from Northfield’s work are obvious: women are connected to the right resources for healing; they are mentored with Christian principles; they learn their worth and purpose. Wonderful byproducts include reduced spiritual, emotional and financial burdens on families, and ultimately lower costs to insurance companies and to society.

In early 2012, Northfield is opening a 12-bed residential treatment facility 30 minutes west of Midlothian, VA for women who need to work through the issues underlying their eating disorders in a focused way.  Located on 49 acres of Virginia farmland, Northfield’s Cumberland Home offers a beautiful, safe, serene location where women can separate from environmental triggers and begin to rebuild the identity and purpose God desires for their lives.

Northfield Ministries believes that healing from eating disorder is possible.  We’ve seen it over and over.  But we can’t help everyone who comes to us without support.  If ever there was a cause that needed help, eating disorder is that cause.

Maybe this is why you are reading this article. Be the voice for those who have lost theirs. Support Northfield Ministries. The life you help may be the life of someone you love.”

For more information about eating disorders or Northfield Ministries, contact Catherine Boyle, Chief Operating Officer of Northfield Ministries, catherine@catherineboyle.com or visit www.northfieldministries.org. 

Statistical source:  Commonwealth of Virginia Joint Commission on Health Care, Healthy Living/Health Services Subcommittee ‘Study of Eating Disorders in the Commonwealth’, September 19, 2011.