The Consorci Sanitari del Maresme incorporates, next to the mental health building, in the outdoor area of ??the Mataró Hospital, a new day hospital to care for minors with eating disorders. The results of the treatments are spectacular and weight recovery is achieved in 95% of cases.
The diagnosis of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and other eating disorders (ED) has increased by up to 40% since the pandemic*. Furthermore, the cases detected are often more serious and in increasingly younger adolescents. It is estimated that in our country there are 300,000 young people between 12 and 24 years old with an eating disorder, hence the need for intervention with these patients.
This year, 16 places have been increased in the Children’s and Youth Day Hospital of the Maresme Health Consortium and this has facilitated the creation of a specific intervention space to exclusively care for children and young people with eating disorders, facilitating their school continuity and permanence in your usual environment (family, friends…) to promote your recovery.
Children and adolescents who are treated come to the center between 1 and 8 p.m. In this way, they follow a global recovery program with psychotherapeutic intervention both individually and in groups, working on the perception of body image, self-esteem and social skills. This intervention is multidisciplinary, thanks to a team made up of psychiatry, psychology, nursing, occupational therapy and social work.
According to Paloma Varela, coordinator of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Consortium, “these patients sometimes suffer from other disorders not related to food, and teamwork is key both with them and with their families.” She also highlights that “the intervention that can be carried out from a day hospital is key, since it represents an intensive therapeutic resource that allows different aspects of patients to be comprehensively addressed, in addition to avoiding many complete hospitalizations.”
The main objectives described in the day hospital treatment programs for eating disorders are: 95-100% weight recovery; treatment of psychopathological alterations that they may suffer such as distortion of body image, fear of weight gain and food; initiate and develop adaptive leisure activities; offer and acquire healthy techniques to replace eating symptoms; develop healthy family relationships and appropriate social relationships as well as healthy and balanced eating habits; stop binge eating, purging and food restrictions; and development of healthy self-esteem and emotional stability as well as self-regulation.
The Maresme Health Consortium offers mental health and addictions services throughout the Maresme region, with a population of more than 440,800 people. In child and adolescent mental health, it has all the devices to provide comprehensive care: outpatient care, emergencies, day hospital and inpatient unit.
