Welcome Back to the Body Brave Blog

Welcome back to the Body Brave blog! I notice that it’s been several years since we uploaded a post. Life at Body Brave is a whirlwind, and we put the blog on pause while we focused on other priorities. But now it’s time to start again! We have a great team at Body Brave, and through this blog you’ll get to know us.

I’m a family physician and the Chief Medical Officer at Body Brave. I also have lived experience as a caregiver to my daughter Sonia when she had a severe eating disorder some years ago. Sonia recovered after a gruelling 8-year journey. She completed a graduate degree in economics and is now Body Brave’s dynamic CEO.

As a family physician, during the years before my daughter became ill, my knowledge about eating disorders was poor. During medical school I had learned almost nothing about these conditions. After my daughter became very ill, I suddenly found myself on a steep learning curve. What I discovered was terrifying. Eating disorders are illnesses that have both psychiatric and physical risks and have one of the highest mortality rates of all mental illnesses.

Yet with early diagnosis and treatment, full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. But that requires healthcare providers to be knowledgeable about these conditions. Unfortunately, students in Canadian medical schools still have minimal training about eating disorders. Even during postgraduate training, young doctors learn little about eating disorders.

In 2022, our team at Body Brave conducted a study about learning needs of family physicians. We interviewed faculty physicians and family medicine residents in the McMaster University Department of Family Medicine, asking them about their experiences with patients with eating disorders. Their responses were compelling. They described how ill-equipped they felt to identify patients who might have an eating disorder, and how little they knew about diagnosis and management of these serious conditions. They spoke about how worried they felt when a patient had an eating disorder, knowing that they had significant knowledge gaps.

Even after a patient is identified with an eating disorder, more difficulties arise. Family doctors often refer their patients with an eating disorder to the nearest outpatient treatment centre. However, if the patient is too ill for an outpatient program, they will be refused admission. The family physician then must fill out a different referral form for a more intensive program. Long waiting lists at hospital-based eating disorder treatment programs compound the problem, frustrating both the patient and the family physician.

At Body Brave, we are currently involved in a pilot project with McMaster Family Practice, to embed eating disorder services into the academic training unit. This initiative is one small step towards building the capacity of primary care providers and their interprofessional colleagues, so they can better recognize and care for their patients with eating disorders. More about this exciting initiative in an upcoming blog post!