It’s National Eating Disorders Week and as part of a provincial plan to better inform British Columbian families and health care providers about this deadly disorder, a series of informational videos are being released across the province.
The seven videos feature experts from the Provincial Specialized Eating Disorders Program, located B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, giving presentations about the medical assessment and management, various therapies, meal support and more.
Included in the seven videos is one about the family experience, which features Rylee McKinlay, 20, and her mother Terri McKinlay. When Rylee was 16 she was hospitalized for nine weeks at B.C. Children’s for her anorexia. At her sickest, her heart rate was so low she was at risk of dying of heart failure.
Eating disorders affect 1.5 per cent of young women age 15 to 24 in B.C. In recent years, rates of EDs have been increasing in men, too. EDs are the deadliest of all mental health concerns, with up to 15 per cent of those with the diagnosis eventually dying directly from the disorder.
The videos are a project of the East Kootenay Local Action Team, which is part of the province-wide Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use Collaborative.
The Collaborative is a province-wide initiative that aims to improve the awareness, coordination, and timely access of child and youth mental health services.
The Collaborative brings together a wide array of people into Local Actions Teams designed to find collective community solutions to specific mental health issues.