Printer-friendly format

The Renfrew Center, which originally opened its doors in Philadelphia in 1985 as the nation’s first residential facility for women with eating disorders, has now expanded service to Middle Tennessee.

Jessica Samford Conley, BFA, MRC, LPC-MHSP, site director for the Brentwood facility, said the new center was licensed in mid-June and accepted its first patient in late July.

“We found there was a huge gap for eating disorders in this area,” she said, adding that prior to the opening, Middle Tennessee had no intensive step-down programs.

For patients recently released from a hospital or residential treatment program, or for those struggling to a point where a more rigorous level of intervention has become necessary, the Renfrew Center offers concentrated programming and a support network. Conley said the intensive outpatient program meets three evenings a week for three hours a session. The day treatment program — or partial hospitalization level of care — meets five days a week for five hours a session.

“Those programs are only open to women,” she said of the group sessions. “It’s hard to mix the genders because eating disorders are so tied to body image.” However, Conley continued, Renfrew can provide licensed clinicians in a variety of disciplines to meet with men in an outpatient, one-on-one or family setting.

Conley said that in these first few months, the need for such programming has been reinforced.

“We’re seeing a lot higher level of acuity than we expected to see,” she noted.

Conley believes the acuity level is directly linked to the gap in care that previously existed in the area. Although Middle Tennessee has a significant number of professionals skilled in treating eating disorders, there had not been a physical facility offering such intensive programming prior to the Renfrew Center’s opening. She said the staff is seeing patients who have undergone multiple inpatient therapies but have floundered once they returned home because there was no concentrated support network to help reinforce the lessons learned during residential treatment.

In addition to intensive outpatient and day treatment programs, the Brentwood facility, located on Westgate Circle, offers outpatient group therapy, as well as individual, family and couple therapy, plus nutritional counseling and psychiatric consultation.

The center treats a variety of eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, emotional eating and binge eating and addresses related concerns like substance abuse, sexual or physical abuse, depression, anxiety, body dysmorphic disorder and self-esteem.

“We’re not just treating the eating disorder itself,” noted Dr. Carol Hersh, who is board certified in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry and pediatrics. “We’re treating a whole range of psychiatric issues. It is unusual to find a pure eating disorder without something else going on … it’s possible but not usual.”

She added that because most eating disorders are multifactorial, treatment at the Renfrew Center is individualized and takes a multi-step approach.




December 2007

Tags:

None

Login and voice your opinion!