Eating Disorders

Check this out:

http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/p.asp?WebPage_ID=656

Try

/http://www.rogershospital.org/hospital/AboutRMH/about.htm

I used to work there on a different unit. The Residential Eating Disorders facility is a new, freestanding building that looks more like a ski lodge than a hospital. And it's on a gorgeous wooded, lakeside campus.

Hope this helps.

I am a member of SPEAK (Students Promoting Eating disorder Awareness and Knowledge) and can give you plenty of info, including a worldwide list of treatment centers, programs, etc. It's really long so just tell me what you need and in what area.

Keely

I went to the Renfrew Center. Never relapsed.

My employer treats ED on its general adolescent inpt program with reasonable success. I personally would prefer a dedicated program.

do you think that someone who is a LPN can work on a psych ward who has a eating disorder? Just wondering yalls opinion

Amanda

do you think that someone who is a LPN can work on a psych ward who has a eating disorder? Just wondering yalls opinion

Amanda

Noone who has an obvious, visible, and unresolved psychiatric disorder should attempt to treat others who have the same disorder. Depressed nurses should not treat depression. Psychotic nuses should not treat psychosis. Persons with unresolved substance abuse have no business treating others on the chemical dependency wards.

Noone who has an obvious, visible, and unresolved psychiatric disorder should attempt to treat others who have the same disorder. Depressed nurses should not treat depression. Psychotic nuses should not treat psychosis. Persons with unresolved substance abuse have no business treating others on the chemical dependency wards.

I've gotta disagree with you there. I think that people with disorders such an an eating disorder, depression, bipolar, etc. can help those with them if they have the proper knowledge. And chances are someone with an ED or depression knows the treatment and what they have to do to get better...it's just that they don't want to or can't. But they have the personal experience to be able to relate to the patient. In some cases I think it can be MORE beneficial because they know of more treatment options than your average psych nurse who has no personal experience with these kinds of things. So in other words, they can provide additional teaching as well as relating in a way that wouldn't let on too much personal information.

I've gotta disagree with you there. I think that people with disorders such an an eating disorder, depression, bipolar, etc. can help those with them if they have the proper knowledge. And chances are someone with an ED or depression knows the treatment and what they have to do to get better...it's just that they don't want to or can't. But they have the personal experience to be able to relate to the patient. In some cases I think it can be MORE beneficial because they know of more treatment options than your average psych nurse who has no personal experience with these kinds of things. So in other words, they can provide additional teaching as well as relating in a way that wouldn't let on too much personal information.

This might be true for someone who is recovered/recovering. In fact, I speak from personal experience, I was depressed enough to be hospitalized for a month. Got help. Went back to school for nursing. My second job was not only working with depressed patients, it was at the very same hospital where I'd started getting better.

That said, I have to concur with CharlieRN when he said,

No one who has an obvious, visible, and unresolved psychiatric disorder should attempt to treat others who have the same disorder.

Being able to tell a patient, "I've been there," can be very cool and inspiring. Having to say, "I'm still there," is not. Patients need to be able to look at their caregivers with some sense of confidence that they know the way to a better, more functional place. Otherwise, what's the point of treatment? You said, "they can provide additional teaching." If they don't have their own recovery well in hand, what will they be teaching?

Staff members need to be able to separate their own issues from those of their patients. Someone who is underdeveloped in their recovery will tend to be too hard or too soft with their patients. A staff member's recovery needs to be well-established and have a number of safeguards--outside the therapeutic milieu where they are employed--for this kind of caregiving to be good for everyone involved.

As long as you are currently stable (not relapsed recently) I think you would do great! But if you aren't recovered I don't think its such a hot idea.

We have a good eating disorders clinic here (made famous by Paula Abdul going through treatment there MANY years ago. http://www.laureate.com

Also there's a good website with info on treatment and support http://www.something-fishy.org/

Denial is not a River in Egypt.

I have met a lot of health care professionals with unhealthy eating patterns who justify their own particular kink. I met an RN who was so severely anorexic that she had "excellent muscle definition" of her facial muscles. That's right you could see every one of them. No sub cutaneous fat left to speak of. She was convinced she was in excellent shape and wanted to teach others.

I knew a DID patient, whom I had treated at another faclity, who got a job working on our crisis intervention team. She was a strong musclar person and she had excellent martial arts training, which is incidently, a good auxillary therapy for women with abuse issuses. She asked me to respect her confidentiality, so of course I said nothing about knowing her from anywhere else. She was sure she was integrated and no longer in need of therapy. None the less, she lasted just about a month before the stress of her job forced her to withdraw.

I knew and worked with an RN on the women's Specialty Program (adult survivors of profound abuse in childhood), she lasted almost a year before her unresolved abuse issues were triggered by the patient's. Her meltdown was embarassingly public and not only cost her job with us but destroyed her current romantic relationship and forced her out of nursing.

The risk is too great. The price is too high. The path of wisdom is caution.