Parents need more support to help children with eating disorders

Loading

In her testimony to the US Congress, whistleblower Frances Haugen said Facebook knew it was harming children and leading teenagers to anorexia-related content. Facebook, however, has strongly rejected this claim and any notion that it prioritised profit over safety and wellbeing.

It’s been decades since Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex exposed how social expectations about how girls and women should look fuels an unhealthy preoccupation with physical appearance. This message still applies. Not only does a preoccupation with appearance potentially distract women and girls from bigger issues – it is making them sick. More than ever, girls are hating their bodies and seeing themselves as fat and ugly.

As of last year, eating disorders were the third-leading cause of the total burden of disease for women aged 15-24 in Australia, accounting for 57 per cent of hospitalisations within this group.

Overall, eating disorders now affect 1 million – or one in 20 – Australians. But only 200,000 are getting appropriate care because of a lack of specialised services.

The number of Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions for those suffering from an eating disorder increased from 10 to 40 in 2019. But there are long waiting lists for mental health services. GPs and psychologists also need extra training.

The Herald supports the Flinders report’s recommendations which include supporting early detection of eating disorders, easier access to specialised medical help, training more health professionals to treat eating disorders, exploring ways to meet increased demand for services and improving support for parents.

There is a limited number of designated funded eating disorder beds across the country. NSW has just 15 public beds and 55 private.

Loading

Not only do health services need to be better resourced and integrated, we as a society, need to support parents by considering how our culture is giving rise to an increasing prevalence of eating disorders. Big tech platforms also have an important role to play in exercising restraint and corporate social responsibility.

We all need to share some responsibility for addressing this growing health problem. The lives of our children depend on it.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.