Butterfly: Let's Talk Butterfly Foundation

Improvements in quality of life and reduced healthcare costs are just some of the benefits uncovered in a Monash University study of Australia’s only residential treatment program for people struggling with eating disorders.

Wandi Nerida, based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, provides a unique model of holistic, person-centred, inpatient care. As the rate of eating disorders continues to rise, so does the need for improved treatment approaches.

“We're trying to step away from that more clinical hospital feel, where everything's super sterile,” says Dr Carly Roukos, Want Nerida’s Clinical Lead. “As much as possible, we try to have it feel less like a hospital and much more like a home.”

In this episode of Let’s Talk, Dr. Roukos shares how the pioneering model of care at Wandi Nerida was first developed, and what life’s like for participants who receive treatment there.

Dr Roukos has been with the centre from its inception in 2020 and has played an important role in developing the successful clinical program.

“The transition from treatment to home can be really difficult,” she says. “So, we provide opportunities to practice real-life things in real-life settings to help with that transition.”

This piece is key post discharge from hospital: How do we maintain our health and recovery in regular life? Dr Roukos addresses this issue and more.

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Please note: This episode was briefly published prematurely on the 4th of April. If you listened to it then we apologise for the repeat. 

If you’ve ever wondered what the public in Australia knows and thinks about eating disorders and body image issues, this episode will put all your questions to rest. We unpack the latest findings from Butterfly's 2024 Community Insights Report with our Head of Knowledge, Research and Policy who shares her perspective on some enlightening results.

The report focuses on community awareness, perceptions, and attitudes, and while Dr. Squire shares the key findings, she also compares these with a previous report published four years ago. What are the implications of community understanding (and misunderstanding) for those with lived experience and the sector at large? Has anything changed?

One key part of the study reveals some dangerous myths and stereotypes surrounding eating disorders, and Dr Squire examines how various misconceptions impact those who might need support.

“We need to understand that eating disorder stigma is complex, important, and under researched. And we can't identify signs and symptoms or support people to seek help without understanding how public stigma and, consequently, self-stigma works for people because stigma around eating disorders is different to other types of mental health stigma.”

Listen to Dr. Squire explain it all – you'll be surprised by what we found out.

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We often talk about the psycho-emotional costs of eating disorders for those living with them; but up to this point, we haven’t learned much about the costs to society.  Now we know. Since 2012, there’s been a shocking 36 per cent increase in the economic burden of eating disorders to the people of Australia. In the meantime, 1.1 million people in this country are currently living with an eating disorder – that's an increase of 21% in only ten years.

We should let you know that this episode discusses sexual abuse and comes with a trigger warning. It's about trauma, which is an individual’s response to an event or series of events that have deeply disturbed their sense of safety, security, or well-being.   While research shows a clear intersection between trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and eating disorders, too few health professionals include trauma therapy in their practice. Why? They’re concerned that by opening the “trauma box” there’ll be a worsening of symptoms or relapse.

This month we’re talking to a distinguished social epidemiologist and behavioural scientist at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Her name is Professor Bryn Austin, and her research focuses on public health approaches to eating disorders.

Our conversation begins with an overview of the web that connects consumer culture, corporate exploitation, and the pervasive influence of diet culture on body image. “We’ve known for decades how harmful the consumer marketplace can be with diet culture, the diet industry, diet pills and supplements, and all the negative body image pressures that come through media, social media and advertising,” she says. “People have been writing about this for decades.”

The problem is we still need to more deeply understand–and do more to address—what corporations are doing to exploit diet culture for profit.

Don’t miss Professor Austin’s wise perspective. Not only does she share her thoughts on the complexities of the body image and eating disorders landscape, but she also discusses the transformative potential of strategic initiatives, including what her Harvard-based laboratory did to protect young Americans from predatory diet-industry profiteering.

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We’re talking about the higher-weight paradox, particularly when well-meaning health professionals can trigger an eating disorder or make one worse. 

Not everything health issue is solved by losing weight, yet that is what people in larger bodies too often hear. Worse, numerous people living with eating disorders remain undiagnosed and untreated because the stereotype of an eating disorder doesn’t fit their reality.   

Melissa says she had an eating disorder from age 12 but wasn’t diagnosed until age 22. In fact, her unhelpful behaviours were encouraged: “All that my doctors cared about was for me to lose weight,” she says. 

Professor Leah Brennan of Latrobe University reports that eating disorders occur across the size spectrum and the prevalence of eating disorders is actually greater in people in larger bodies. 

One problem, says GP Samantha Wyton, is that people in non-typical body shapes and sizes are too often made to feel unsafe and unwelcome in medical settings. 

“We’re taught that obesity is a disease in medical training,” she says. But it’s a lot more complex than that. “We need to embrace the full spectrum of shapes and sizes, because that’s the reality of the human condition.”   

Dietitian Dr Fiona Willer, agrees. “The effect of weight centrism, particularly in primary care, is that people will delay going to the doctor until they can’t avoid it,” she says. And that effectively creates an issue for all their health outcomes, not only body image and eating disorders. 

Listen to Sam unpack this issue with our group of concerned and articulate guests, including their thoughts about how we can and must change.

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