Help’s Here for Deadly Disorder

By AKOORIE, Natalie

Anorexia and bulimia sufferers will have access to an eating disorder service in the Waikato from August, four years after the Health Ministry called the region a priority area.

The Waikato District Health Board has been criticised over its lack of services for eating disorder patients but says it has followed Health Ministry guidelines and is part way through recruiting a project manager to manage a targeted outpatient service.

Under the Health Ministry’s Future Directions for Eating Disorders Services in New Zealand document, released in late March, the DHB is obliged to provide a detailed plan by the end of June outlining its intended service. The ministry’s document was designed to counter the lack of services nationwide for people with eating disorders, which include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

The DHB is one of five health boards in the Midland region that does not have a service, despite the Health Ministry publicly flagging the Waikato as a priority area in 2004.

Planning and funding general manager Brett Paradine said the DHB had been investigating the implementation of such a service since 2006. Mr Paradine said in December the board resolved to make $63,000 available for 2007/8 and $250,000 a year after that to implement a specialist multi- disciplinary eating disorders team.

“The process to develop a Midland Regional Plan has been under way for some months and is being led by Lakes DHB.”

He said it would be signed off by June 2 – before the plan deadline.

Midland region DHBs, including Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Lakes, Tairawhiti and Taranaki, currently receive supervision and consultation from the Auckland eating disorder services.

National Party associate health spokeswoman Jackie Blue said she feared anorexia and bulimia sufferers could be going un-detected and untreated in the Waikato because it did not have a service. In figures released to her under the Official Information Act, Waikato DHB reported seeing nine people with an eating disorder in 2007 and 15 in 2006.

However the ministry’s new document suggested five per cent of people suffer from an eating disorder and with Waikato DHB’s population of more than 353,000, its incidence of the illnesses should be dozens if not hundreds more a year.

Waikato DHB service manager for adult mental health, Eileen Hughes, said while it was evident the Midland region was “significantly affected” by the lack of services, only about 23 new cases were predicted to be present in the region annually.

(c) 2008 Waikato Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.