EDIC 2014: What a difference four years make
Facebook profile photos and email
addresses and Skype images became people you can sit next to and just smile
with. A lot of that, actually, so delighted to be in one another’s presence. One
dimensional relationships develop tangents and then shared jokes and new
tenderness even on short "real" acquaintance.
My trip had me alongside F.E.A.S.T. families and friends
formally -- in the EDIC conference sessions -- but also marvelously convened klatches
of friends who couldn’t afford the fee or the time to attend sessions but met
at nearby museums and coffee shops in a rolling three-day get-together I didn’t
want to end.
I took city busses and cabs and the Tube, crossed bridges,
ate Italian and Turkish and one night just “nibbles” that were so delightful I
didn’t realize until I tucked into bed that I hadn’t really tucked in to a
meal. My stay at the Russell Hotel was London charming: tiny room, palatial
breakfast hall. I didn’t forget any chargers and used exactly as many pairs of
shoes as I brought. For some reason I still, at my age, feel terribly adult
when I negotiate all the transitions and packing and make it to the last leg
without major snafu. Let’s not speak of the time I wandered away from my
luggage… no one stole or blew it up.
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The blue-haired ladies of EDIC |
I see differences now. Far more active, informed and
opinionated families. Sorry about that, England. More alliances with former and
present adult patients – a really delightful aspect of the UK F.E.A.S.T. crowd.
Less parent-blaming from the podium. More collaborative talk across disciplines
and between families and clinicians. And, F.E.A.S.T. was often recognized as a
resource to families in the UK and elsewhere, even thanked, as a collaborating
partner in the parent, clinical, and advocacy worlds.
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The shoes, the shoes! |
The biggest difference is this: “anorexia” is often used here
as a proxy for all eating disorders. I have always been jarred by it but more
so lately and it jumps out at me here more than anywhere. But context is
important and for those outside the UK’s NHS we need to remember the cruel
reality that specialist eating disorders services are almost impossible to
access if you are not at a dire low weight. You can have all the horrific psychological
and behavioral symptoms of an eating disorder, you can binge and purge nearly
unlimited amounts, and you can be quite underweight but you are only
hospitalized or referred for specialist care for one late-stage symptom:
extremely low weight.
This means the specialists in eating disorders really only
see anorexia nervosa and only see those patients in extremis. The statistics,
clinical experience, and resources are seeing one sliver of patients. The
majority, the vast majority, of eating disorder sufferers are being seen on a
non specialist, outpatient, local basis if at all.
It’s a self-perpetuating false view of eating disorders.
It’s like defining infection only at the level of amputation-level gangrene. No
one in the UK ED world likes this, accepts it, or doesn’t want to see it
changed, but, when even dire ED cases have to struggle for resources it’s clear
why the language has developed this way.
I live in a “system," the US, where we diagnose ourselves,
seek out the kind of professional we believe best treats our condition, and get
as much treatment as we can afford or our insurance will subsidize. It is often very bad care. It is often marketed to vulnerable families and then withdrawn when bank accounts are drained. We can get
care for bulimia or BED as easily as we can anorexia, so our language and
advocacy reflect that. Those who treat one ED also treat the others and has
seen the range.
The British Museum, and we didn't see the Vikings! |
True, nearly everything we can say about anorexia is also
true for the rest of the ED spectrum. The parental demands, the professionals
to consult, the issue of malnutrition, and the danger are all the same. But
“Anorexia” is a specific sliver of the spectrum, not a term that can be fixed
with an asterix or subtitle. Solution: let’s just say “eating disorders” for
the spectrum and be specific on sub-diagnosis when talking about specific
patients or treatments?
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Helix team on duty! |
Russell Park.... |
Question: how’s that working for you? As a parent who talks
to a lot of UK parents, it’s not. They want a health system that
considers it a critical situation for a developing adolescent to be
malnourished. Not just “starving.” Any malnourished child is in peril. And that includes bulimia,
BED, OS-FED (EDNOS), and FED-NEC. Oops. Soap Box moment. (or Hyde Park moment,
really)
I’m curious about how different cultures and healthcare
systems interpret the existing science. For example, while the APA’s diagnostic
category book, the DSM, is widely used in the US, and the categories are the standard
in most research publication, but it is not widely used elsewhere clinically
(um. the DSM manual costs $100+). That means we don’t all use the same terms
and even the definition of the disorders may differ. The international
standard, the ICD, has different dimensions and although it tracks mostly with
DSM is emphatically not used in the US and not often in research – and some
countries (learned this at EDIC) don’t use any. (France, call me?) So we are a
tower of Babel when we really need some stone tablets.
My first croughnuts, care of Miranda |
My answer is simpler: anorexia is not a weight condition, it
is a mental illness at all weights. “Obesity” is a weight condition, not a mental illness.)
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Selfie at the park |
My plenary presentation at EDIC went off okay, I think. People
always say nice things, but I like to think I’ve gotten better at public
speaking over the years and really did do F.E.A.S.T. proud, and the parent
community proud, and that the four years since my last EDIC stage (with Fiona!)
were good training.
As always, it’s in the hallways and dinners and lobbies
where relationships are formed and nurtured, not to mention seatmates during
presentations. I met many new people over the sandwich table and during coffee
and after Q&A. My walk through London with Miranda was unforgettable (and
involved croughnuts)! I had one meet up at a museum that turned out to be two
separate museums – mine being the wrong one – giving me a free hour to sit in
Russell Park and watch the London world go by. Another gathering was graced
with gorgeous weather, a gaggle of dear friends, but far too short a time. I
loved the opportunity to address Charlotte Bevan’s friends about the Helix,
with backup by video from Cindy Bulik and a star turn by Susan Ringwood of Beat.
Dinner out with S & G ended on the most hysterical interaction with the
server not soon forgotten. And an al fresco shared bottle of wine at that most
relaxed moment: after the speeches, back in flat shoes, but before going home
to do laundry and catch up on email.
I really, REALLY did not like the good-byes. Sue and Helen
and Erica and Rachel and Fiona and Becci, thank you for your support and
kindness on the Saturday, and beyond. Thank you to the Monsons for hosting a
wonderful conversation with nibbles and the sweetest and most attentive dog. Big
shout out to the KCL team for the professional and energetic Helix recruitment
stall. Thank you to Beat for the invitation and F.E.A.S.T. for the support.
Thank you to hubby for sparing me and carrying on (British sense, not US).
Charlotte, you were missed. You are such a part of the
community. Your voice is in our ear, and
your attitude is there to keep us from anything maudlin or vapid. I thank you,
too, for the bonds you made between us and how leaving us something to work on
together has created new relationships. Still mad you’re gone, though, so don’t
let it go to your head.
Great observations! Thanks, Laura, for being there and reporting to us. So sorry, again, to hear about the sad state of affairs of ED treatment in the UK. Just tragic.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we scared the Vikings away.
ReplyDeleteKris, the state of ED treatment in the UK is poor, but (and perhaps I'm just defending the indefensible because it's MY indefensible, but here goes) I'm not so sure that it is worse than in other countries, just that we all have our different sorts of inadequate system. Here access to treatment is based on clinical need (and yes, absolutely, clinical need is judged on far too stretched a set of criteria and it often IS too late when help arrives) not the ability of the patient or his or her family to ask or pay for it. We definitely have a two tier system - acute care for the very sickest (and yes, they shouldn't have been allowed to become so sick) at hospitals where the researchers who spoke at EDIC work, and private general therapists using all sorts of therapies with varying amounts of evidence base for those who can both identify their need for such things and pay the ££££s needed to fund the sessions. We also have pockets of much better provision, fought for by dedicated clinicians passionate about furthering not only their own careers but provision for their patients, all free at the point of demand, and usually groaning at the seams as a result. I understand that the situation in Australia is similar in some ways, but complicated also by the vast distances involved in travelling from one area to another. At least we are spared most of the slick marketing and huge fees offered by some of the providers in other systems. Care and understanding of these illnesses is appalling the world over but we can continue to fight to improve things
Oh, dear. I've annoyed!
DeleteEverything you are saying is tragically true. I'd rather be in the NHS, in many ways. I find the fact that finances are the difference between access and none for us. And that system doesn't make the treatment provided any better: you can pay a lot for useless treatment here.
Please know that I am calling for improvement in all systems, but different improvement needed in each!
No, you haven't annoyed - I know that is what you meant - that we need to pull on our big girls' pants and fight for better treatment EVERYWHERE, we just may need to use different language and have different emphasis in different places.
DeleteIt was great to meet you - and you really did do FEAST proud! I loved your presentation and your passion blew folk away. Most of all, you made us think x
ReplyDeleteand yes, Charlotte was with us all all the way through it
ReplyDeleteI may not be a part of the "group" but I do understand how frustrating it is to change a system, any system. I didn't want to risk my own daughters life waiting for them to figure it out. Facebook has connected many of us to new and old friends alike. Recently, I came across a post of the untimely death of a young woman, the daughter of a grade school friend. I wondered, could it be an ED? After reading the blog shared by her friend I realized I was sadly correct. So here I sit, with all my knowledge and readiness to leap but this damn disease remains a private one. If I only knew I might have helped with support and direction. Yes, she had fancy treatment centers here in the states and much love as well. It's obviously not enough when the illness is so embedded it becomes who one identifies with rather than seeing the disease as the enemy it truly is and booting it out.She had grown up with this horrible disease and the medical people apparently do not know how to treat many cases that start so young. I hate feeling like I failed her but it must come with the territory of knowing about these disorders. Her family is taking peace in knowing she no longer suffers but me, I know what a beautiful life awaits when treatment, at HOME or with good help works. I am not married to the medical system here or against it. I just think a mom/mum can offer a powerful bit of support when we understand that nourishment is essential. It's basic common sense and a degree isn't in my backpack. I just wonder if an army of mothers and loved ones isn't better or as well equipped to fight this. I am glad no one took this power from me. I'm not sure we'd be done and onto that beautiful life here if I was ordered to use the professionals. I mean no disrespect. I just know how fiercely determined I was to see this monster removed from our lives. I didn't remove it...I handed my child the sword and of course the nourishment that was needed. I understand that some are more stubborn and that ED's are sneaky. Still, let's not throw away one of the best chances our kids have, ourselves. ~ Mary
ReplyDeleteI also live with this particular health system, and I note (and weep for) its failings too, but, Kris, we are not quite in the realms of full-blown tragedy - we have foundations on which to build, and Laura's comments bring hope to many of us living here. What Laura has done is to call some of our problems for us - plainly - and Laura, I love you for it, and I know that people are listening to you; it is when we fail to question what we have, perhaps, that the hope finally drains away.
ReplyDeleteThe UK is mostly full of good intention - history can probably attribute our habit of "meaning well" as our greatest blessing and responsible for our most heinous crimes, and much of our greatest treatment failings may be predicated on over-thinking this particular angle. Laura, you have a knack of making friends and making people want to listen to what you have to say. Well meaning people who refer to all eds as generic anorexia or get the wrong end of the stick on diagnoses, those who think that children and adults are entirely different in their needs for confidentiality and treatment and family support or who worry about ability to tolerate higher weight goals, have, maybe, not yet considered these things carefully from another angle, but I hope that this may not preclude interest in improving or in listening to a well observed point of view - I am counting on it in fact in order to keep up with the sometimes unequal struggle that this can feel to be. If anyone can persuade someone to listen, it is probably you.
Not sure if I said it to you (and not sure that it is my place in any case) but thank you for "showing up" here - we can always benefit from your particular brand of openness and challenge, coming as it does with an outstretched hand and in pursuit of common goals, and there are many more than me learning from both your approach and your wisdom; your trailing "fan club" (of which I am, of course, a member) is testament to that. London plainly loved having you here, and put on her sunniest face; we are trying hard not to look a little wan without you as we start another week and take stock of the one that has just gone with all the good, the bad and the plain indifferent gloriously brought into focus by your visit to us.
It sounds like a fantastic trip and and a realization there is still so much work to be done. Absolutely hear you on the use of anorexia as a short-hand for eating disorders--it doesn't work. Interesting to hear how they explain the 17 BMI component--I've wondered about that as it's clear from what I hear from other moms that is a tremendous problem and a factor in keeping people chronically ill. Thank you for all the work you do and have done and for inspiring us all to fight alongside you.
ReplyDelete