Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this year I addressed the parliament about the need for us all to be doing more when it comes to the prevention of eating disorders. The prevention of eating disorders is obviously an area where we must apply due diligence, because, as the well-known but very pertinent cliche goes, prevention is always better than a cure. However, this does not mean that we should turn our sights away from the provision of better treatment and rehabilitation services for those men and women in Australia who are suffering from eating disorders. And it is on this matter that I would like to speak this morning.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with the South Australian branch of the Eating Disorders Association, which is a not-for-profit organisation supporting people of all ages who are suffering from an eating disorder. I was invited to attend a meeting with its support group participants to discuss eating disorders and their potential treatments. I would like to thank the Eating Disorder Association for having me out there but also the participants for speaking so honestly about their own illnesses and what they saw were the areas where we were most lacking in addressing these issues. A number of issues were raised with me at this meeting and I will continue to raise them within this parliament, but today I would like to particularly focus on the lack of services which are available in this country for people suffering from eating disorders.

There are a number of different treatment options available in different parts of the country. There are also a number of different treatments which are appropriate for different sufferers. Some cases can be treated by dietary advice, exercise programs, cognitive behavioural therapy, motivational therapy, family therapy, counselling, psychotherapy or drug therapy. Sometimes, when conditions are severe, treatment requires hospitalisation.

After the meeting at the Eating Disorders Association, I looked into just what services were available across Australia and I found that it was very hard to come up with answers. When I was at this meeting, I heard about the scarcity of services and I heard from some sufferers who were forced to head interstate to get appropriate treatment. I also heard the firsthand accounts of people who felt that they had no choice but to go overseas to receive treatment and they were just lucky that they were in a financial position where they were able to do that. Obviously, not all sufferers are in this situation. So I decided to do a little research and look into this matter, because I wanted to see whether it was just in South Australia where we were lacking services or whether it was indeed across the country. I discovered that this is a very hard area to get any answers on because eating disorder treatments are generally classified under the broad label of mental health. It is very hard for me as a member of parliament to see what services are available—let alone for the many people who need these services urgently either for themselves or for their families.

I will continue to lobby at both the state and federal level because there is no doubt that we need to do more work and ensure that there are more services available. Today I call on the federal health minister to report back to this parliament on just what level of support services for eating disorder sufferers are available in this country, where these services are available and most importantly where the gaps are and how we are going to fill them.

I would also like to briefly touch on one other issue that was raised with me at this meeting and which has been raised with me subsequently by people who have written to me, and that is the stereotyping and inaccurate portrayals in the media of eating disorders and the devastating consequences that this can have. Many of us will be familiar with the images of women with protruding ribs, gaunt faces and dark circles under their eyes. These are the images that feature prominently alongside almost every media piece about eating disorders in this country. It reinforces the stereotype that all sufferers of eating disorders are waif thin. Despite the fact that this is simply inaccurate, it is also very damaging. I heard accounts from people at this meeting who said that, for a long time, when they were clearly suffering from a very serious disease, they looked in the mirror and they did not see reflected back at them the images that they associated with eating disorders in this country, so they did not go and get help. It is very damaging to stereotype eating disorders and eating disorder sufferers, and it often leads to people not receiving the treatment that they require. (Time expired)