The ACT Government has completed the new Eating Disorders Residential Treatment Centre in Coombs, which will provide specialist care in a brand-new service for the region.
Minister for Mental Health Emma Davidson said that today was an important milestone for people in our community who face or care for someone with an eating disorder.
"The new centre in Coombs is the first government owned and operated facility of its kind in Australia. It provides 24/7 residential care in a place that feels like home so people can apply their skills once they are ready to leave the service," Minister Davidson said.
"Eating disorders are serious illnesses that can have significant impacts on the physical, psychological, and social-emotional wellbeing of the individuals and families affected. The centre provides therapeutic services that include specialist, intensive nutritional, and psychological treatment.
"For the past few years, we have worked closely with a range of stakeholders on the design. This engagement was undertaken with clinicians, non-government organisations, people with lived experience of eating disorders and the wider Canberra community.
"Over the next few days Canberra Health Services will finalise the centre and from next week appointments will start running. Residential treatments will begin in the coming weeks."
The establishment of the centre was supported by an Australian Government commitment of $13.5 million over three years.
The specialist residential centre is a new service for the ACT. The centre will complement other eating disorder services in the Canberra region, including the Eating Disorders Clinical Hub and the early intervention service.
Quotes attributable to Dr Jim Hungerford CEO of the Butterfly Foundation:
"It is excellent to see this much needed addition to the eating disorder supports available in the ACT."
"Butterfly has welcomed the opportunity to share our learnings and insights from opening and running Wandi Nerida, Australia's first residential recovery centre for eating disorders, located on the Sunshine Coast QLD, with ACT Health and other states as they develop their own public residential treatment facilities around Australia.
"We believe residential treatment, with 24/7 specialist eating disorder care in a home-like environment, is an essential option for successful recovery for many within the stepped system of care for eating disorders, and we're excited to see more treatment options expanding across Australia for the more than1.1 million Australians directly impacted each year."
Quotes attributable to David Quilty, ACT Director at Eating Disorder Families Australia:
"Eating Disorders Families Australia (EDFA) ACT Director, David Quilty, said the completion of the Residential Treatment Centre would be warmly welcomed by the families and carers of loved ones with eating disorders.
From day one, the Minister Emma Davidson and the Health Directorate have included representatives of eating disorder families and carers in all aspects of the planning and development of this facility, including the model of care.
EDFA looks forward to families and carers being active participants in the vital role of the Residential Treatment Facility and to continue providing our counselling, education and support services to the broader Canberra community."
