Future London eating disorder clinic would target gaps in care for post-secondary students

A London psychiatrist who specializes in treating people with eating disorders is spearheading a plan to create an on-campus clinic dedicated to treating students at Western University and Fanshawe College. 

The project is called The Harbour and as the name suggests, the goal is to create a safe space that offers multiple services in one location.

Leading the drive to the make The Harbour a reality is Dr. Robbie Campbell, a former professor at Western and founder of the Eating Disorders Foundation of Canada.

Clients who seek help for eating disorders often struggle to find cohesive care for conditions that require expertise across multiple medical disciplines, Campbell said. Care is often inconsistent, not properly co-ordinated and underfunded.

"There's no designated program," he said. "What we're offering with The Harbour [is] a multi-disciplinary team."

There's currently a two and a half year wait for treatment in London, Campbell said. 

"Early intervention is extremely important as eating disorders also carry with it a high suicide rate and a high mortality rate due to medical complications," he wrote in a recent article. "Mortality rates are estimated to be as high as 10 per cent to 20 per cent if eating disorders are left untreated."

Campbell hopes to get The Harbour up and running by next year  — supporting 100 clients annually. A location hasn't been solidified yet. 

"Out there people are trying to deal with mental illness almost in silos," he said. "We're trying to bring the universities, the hospitals, fundraisers and organizations together so that we can have a true multi-disciplinary team that relates to each other and does not operate in silos."

Students would be referred to The Harbour by health services at their school, receive an assessment in their first appointment and be assigned someone to coordinate their care.

The care plan would include weekly appointments with trained counsellors and therapists from a multi-disciplined team specializing in eating disorders. Depending on the client's needs, the care team could include psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and dietitians. 

It's the kind of care that would have benefited Stephanie McKee, now 32, who struggled with anorexia while attending Western University in her early 20s. McKee received treatment as a teen but ran into gaps once she aged out of pediatric care. 

"I didn't experience the best transition to any adult support," she said. "I reverted back to old coping mechanisms that weren't necessarily positive." 

In her second year of studying nursing at Western University, McKee was hospitalized for a second time. The next year, she "hit rock bottom." Facing long waitlists for care in Canada, she ended up in a program based in the United States which she had to pay for out of pocket.