In this inSight+ article, AFMW members Dr Tahnee Bridson and Dr Skye Kinder talk about the problems with the mental health system, eating disorders and doctor’s mental health – as clinicians and patients.
‘Doctors fight systemic hurdles in treating eating disorders’ [Extract]
Eating disorders sit outside of the normal medical treatment model, making access to treatment and care in Australia very difficult for patients and putting additional pressure on doctors.
Many doctors find it difficult to treat eating disorders, whether they are physicians, general practitioners, paediatricians or psychiaristrists.
We argue that eating disorder conditions don’t fit nicely into a medical model, making treatment and care options very challenging, particularly given the constraints with the health system.
Eating disorders have among the highest mortality and suicide rates of all mental illness (here), yet their relative importance has been neglected by medical research and health care systems until recently.
Indeed, mental health care for potentially serious illnesses remains severely rationed in Australia, shrouding treatment for eating disorders in myth and mystery for many patients and carers alike.
Doctors can also be forgiven for thinking it is a mystery, prompting the question: how many people actually receive good quality care?
Currently, only 50% of people with a need for mental health care receive it and only 15% of this care is of minimally adequate quality (here).
This means that the treatment of potentially serious mental illness is frequently withheld until it can no longer be denied, and that illnesses present with greater chronicity and severity when eventually seen.
With regards to eating disorders, this equates to a loss of over 3.3 million healthy life years, significantly reduced quality of life, an increase in the years lived with a disability, and increased loss of life (here).
How would we respond if cancer treatment was withheld until the cancer was in its late or final stages?
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(article / photo credit inSight+ / Stock-Asso/Shutterstock)
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
