Cindy Dobbe, president of The Looking Glass Foundation, a Vancouver-based charitable organization made up of individuals who have watched someone struggle with an eating disorder, said public treatment in Canada falls woefully short of demand.
If people cannot get into the seven-bed program at St. Pauls Hospital or the 14-bed program for youth at B.C. Childrens Hospital, their options are relying on limited government-funded outpatient services (the nearest one for Nanaimo residents is in Victoria) or paying for treatment privately -- Dobbe re-mortgaged her house to send her own daughter for treatment in Arizona several years ago.
The foundation is raising money to open Canadas first private, non-profit treatment facility for adolescents on property it bought on Galiano Island. The only hurdle remaining is final approval from the province.
The proposed facility would accept patients who have already been medically stabilized in hospital.
"If we filled eight beds at $800 a day, we could give away 12 beds," said Dobbe.
Next month, the foundation is also starting up online support groups for youth, adults and parents and caregivers, which people from across the province will be able to access once a week.
Posted By: Aspen/CRC
