gruntygiggles
12-03-09, 12:19 PM
Hi folks, I just watched an interview on This Morning with a woman that has suffered with anorexia for over 7 years and was given a choice of being sectioned or admitting herself to a residential clinic when she weighed just 5st 2lb.
Please bear with me, there is a point to this thread.
My family is still trying to make sense of my 16 year old cousin dying of anorexia three years ago and so this is a subject close to my heart. Ellen wanted to lose a few pounds for a school prom and it went from there. That was February and she died that August, she really did just stop eating. She would sometimes have 2 rich tea biscuits or 5 grapes a day and would measure out her water allowance.
Now.......She was 16 and we were constantly told that we could not force her into a home and the doctors always maintained that she needed to go on a body image programme. She saw the first GP that referred her to this in April and her referral came through two weeks before she died, at which point she had just been admitted to hospital at a little over 4 stone because she collapsed and her eye could no longer stay in the socket.
Despite beng chased up constantly, that referral was just way too late. her school nurses actually said that she'd grow out of it and the hospital staff would not tube feed her against her will because they did not understand the illness. She was a 16 year old on an adult Cardiac ward and the nurses just didn't have the training.
Pointless thread for most this may be, however, I have a question out there for parents or would be parents and it is this:-
If there was a charity set up for the families of children or adults with eating disorders that could offer practical and legal advice, not just telephone support, would you find that useful if you had a son or daughter suffering this or any other eating disorder?
I am not thinking of doing anything right now, but maybe in a year or two, with help, set something up so that people like my auntie don't have to just trust what the doctors are saying and can seek proper, impartial, legal advice.
The different GP's and nurses that had involvement with Ellen were all cautioned over their lack of action in Ellens case, but My auntie didn't want to take it any further. We have since been told that we could have forcefully taken Ellen to a phychiatrist and had her sectioned and the hospital SHOULD have referred her to a psychiatrist when she was admitted mid August. Because she was stuck on an adult cardiac ward, they did not have this knowledge and were going by the advice of if the patient refuses, you have to accept that.
We'll never get Ellen back and I'll never forget sitting with for an hour after she died because I didn't want her to be alone before going to the morgue.
If the system can so utterly fail a girl of just 16, what's to say this isn't happening all over with many families suffering through lack of knowledge and advice.
There are charities and organisations that offer advice on the subject, but all are unwilling to discuss the actual process of sectioning. They just tell you it's a final option and won't actually talk you through the process.
I'm not saying I would want all people with eating disorders sectioned, but for people like my aunt, all she needed was someone to say that she had the right to demand her GP refer Ellen to a psychiatrist and we may still have her with us now.
So.......would you wise guys and girls of the Org feel that setting up a more practical charity would be of benefit and something that I should indeed look into doing?
Thanks for any of your thoughts!
Please bear with me, there is a point to this thread.
My family is still trying to make sense of my 16 year old cousin dying of anorexia three years ago and so this is a subject close to my heart. Ellen wanted to lose a few pounds for a school prom and it went from there. That was February and she died that August, she really did just stop eating. She would sometimes have 2 rich tea biscuits or 5 grapes a day and would measure out her water allowance.
Now.......She was 16 and we were constantly told that we could not force her into a home and the doctors always maintained that she needed to go on a body image programme. She saw the first GP that referred her to this in April and her referral came through two weeks before she died, at which point she had just been admitted to hospital at a little over 4 stone because she collapsed and her eye could no longer stay in the socket.
Despite beng chased up constantly, that referral was just way too late. her school nurses actually said that she'd grow out of it and the hospital staff would not tube feed her against her will because they did not understand the illness. She was a 16 year old on an adult Cardiac ward and the nurses just didn't have the training.
Pointless thread for most this may be, however, I have a question out there for parents or would be parents and it is this:-
If there was a charity set up for the families of children or adults with eating disorders that could offer practical and legal advice, not just telephone support, would you find that useful if you had a son or daughter suffering this or any other eating disorder?
I am not thinking of doing anything right now, but maybe in a year or two, with help, set something up so that people like my auntie don't have to just trust what the doctors are saying and can seek proper, impartial, legal advice.
The different GP's and nurses that had involvement with Ellen were all cautioned over their lack of action in Ellens case, but My auntie didn't want to take it any further. We have since been told that we could have forcefully taken Ellen to a phychiatrist and had her sectioned and the hospital SHOULD have referred her to a psychiatrist when she was admitted mid August. Because she was stuck on an adult cardiac ward, they did not have this knowledge and were going by the advice of if the patient refuses, you have to accept that.
We'll never get Ellen back and I'll never forget sitting with for an hour after she died because I didn't want her to be alone before going to the morgue.
If the system can so utterly fail a girl of just 16, what's to say this isn't happening all over with many families suffering through lack of knowledge and advice.
There are charities and organisations that offer advice on the subject, but all are unwilling to discuss the actual process of sectioning. They just tell you it's a final option and won't actually talk you through the process.
I'm not saying I would want all people with eating disorders sectioned, but for people like my aunt, all she needed was someone to say that she had the right to demand her GP refer Ellen to a psychiatrist and we may still have her with us now.
So.......would you wise guys and girls of the Org feel that setting up a more practical charity would be of benefit and something that I should indeed look into doing?
Thanks for any of your thoughts!