On Thursday September 1, 2022, I received some news that infuriated me. The information I received was that the University of Iowa Hospitals had made the decision to eliminate their inpatient treatment for patients with an eating disorder. This hit close to me, as my sister is currently in treatment at the hospital in her battle with Anorexia Nervosa. Now before I get any further in this blog, I want to make one thing clear, I understand U of I Hospitals are their own independent hospitals and I support their freedom to make their decision, I just want to take a moment to bring light to the bigger issue facing our state.
With the closure of this treatment center, our state now has no inpatient treatment center available to the people battling eating disorders. I would like to point out that yes, the University of Iowa will still offer something called Partial Hospitalization (PHP). However, this treatment is not suitable for patients, such as my sister, that are deemed medically unstable. With PHP patients meet for groups Monday-Friday and then they are sent home or to their own hotel at night and on the weekends where they are not always supervised.
Eating disorders (ED) is a rapidly growing mental health issue in our state and our country. It is estimated that roughly 9% of American Women will suffer from Anorexia in their lifetime. With that being said, take a moment right now and write down the names of 11 women you care about.
If you haven’t already done the math, one of those eleven women you wrote down will suffer from Anorexia at some point in their life. Out of those who suffer from Anorexia 20% of them will die from suicide due to the strangling depression that typically goes hand in hand with the ED. In addition to that very upsetting statistic, another 20% of them will die without treatment as opposed to only 2-3% of patients who receive treatment dying.
It is clear. Treatment for eating disorders makes a positive impact on its patients. The new reality that Iowa now faces is there is no place for people to get inpatient treatment. I understand that there are multiple different forms of treatment and therapy, but for patients who have severe ED’s, inpatient is truly the only effective form to 1.) Keep them alive, and 2.) learn how to change the current path of destruction they are on. With the closing of the U of I’s treatment center, our state (Iowa) is left with no inpatient treatment centers, causing many of our citizens to travel out of state, and more than likely having zero insurance to cover them causing many families to make the difficult decision of getting the proper treatment, or running the risk of destroying one’s body (Look up what anorexia does to your body's organs, bones, and muscles if you don’t already know).
The point of this blog is simple. We have a problem. ED’s are growing at a rapid rate, more than likely due to the constant comparison our youth and young people are putting on themselves from social media, and tracking their calories, and steps on Apple watches. It easily becomes an obsession, maybe one of the only things one feels they can control, and with time, the ED controls them and those they love.
So overall, without getting too personal and sharing too much, I ask of anyone reading this, please sign the petition. Please talk to your local hospitals, talk to your local, state, and federal politicians. I assure you if we just let our state go with no inpatient treatment centers, we will have thousands of women suffer, and unfortunately probably thousands of women die, not to mention the men who also suffer from ED’s at a very high and alarming rate which I barely even addressed in this blog. This is preventable, and I ask that you take the time to help ensure it does not happen. You may think it will never effect you, but I assure you, ED’s are growing, and it will be knocking on the door of those you love. Act before it is too late. Thank you.
**Edit: If you are interested in signing a petition for this cause, this link https://www.change.org/p/save-the-eating-disorder-program-at-university-of-iowa-hospitals-and-clinics?recruiter=962514446&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=09471950-79a5-11e9-a66d-cfb764a00698&share_bandit_exp=initial-34319469-en-US&utm_content=fht-34319469-en-us%3A2&fbclid=IwAR2Vq0-qKpcAqGK4hAWEx-2miX-nbB4m-20oarXWMJOX15U1zgmeWNm6PAI will take you to the petition that has been started, click the google redirect link and you'll be there.**
References for statistics/additional resources to look into:
https://balancedtx.com/blog/anorexia-nervosa-facts-statistics
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/26743https://mirror-mirror.org/facts-staticstics/anorexia-statisticshttps://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com/conditions/anorexia/symptoms-signshttps://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/eating-disorders.htmlhttps://anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/ https://www.healthline.com/health/kidney-failure
