El Levine Children's Hospital inaugura un Centro de trastornos alimenticios
El Levine Children's Hospital inaugura un Centro de trastornos alimenticios
Supported by a three-year $567,000 grant from the Duke Endowment, the Levine Children's Hospital (LCH) Center for Disordered Eating has begun seeing patients. The Center is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary program for outpatient management of eating disorders in metropolitan Charlotte.
La atención médica, el apoyo psicológico y la educación sobre nutrición son tres elementos necesarios para el tratamiento y se ofrecerán bajo el mismo techo, lo que le dará al Centro una cualidad especial. Antes, los pacientes tenían que viajar a múltiples centros para obtener estos servicios.
'One of the largest impediments to successful treatment is the time, hassle and expense of going to separate places for those services,' said Kristin Rager, MD, MPH, Director of Adolescent Medicine at LCH. 'Consolidating all aspects of treatment in one location makes it easier for patients to get help.'
Además del tratamiento, el subsidio financiará servicios comunitarios en los que el equipo de tratamiento hablará de temas como la autoestima, la imagen corporal, la alimentación saludable y la actividad física.
En 2007, la encuesta sobre comportamientos de riesgo juvenil (Youth Risk Behaviour Survey) realizada a estudiantes de escuelas medias y secundarias en Charlotte-Mecklenburg demostró que los trastornos alimenticios ocurren entre los adolescentes.
Results show that 40 percent of responding students in both middle schools and high schools are trying to lose weight. Four percent of high school students surveyed answered ‘yes' to vomiting or taking laxatives to lose weight or prevent weight gain.
'Nearly 67,000 students are enrolled in CMS middle and high schools, but those enrolled in private or parochial schools and students out of high school are not included in this survey,' said Dr. Rager. 'I am concerned that these numbers are actually higher. Clearly, many young people could benefit from the multidisciplinary approach and prevention efforts we offer.'
La Dra. Rager piensa que el Centro es importante porque la gran cantidad de publicidad que rodea a la obesidad en los adolescentes provoca que la dimensión y el alcance de los problemas de trastornos alimenticios sean pasados por alto. Mientras que la imagen tradicional de un paciente con trastornos alimenticios es una mujer blanca de clase media alta, el problema está aumentando entre los adultos, los hombres, las minorías raciales y las personas de grupos socioeconómicos más bajos.
La Dra. Rager, que llegó al Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) en el año 2006, es también la directora médica de Teen Health Connection, una organización sin fines de lucro asociada con el LCH para atender a adolescentes entre los 11 y 21 años. La Dra. Rager es uno de los menos de 500 médicos certificados en medicina adolescente de todo el país.
Además del subsidio Duke Endowment, el Centro recibe contribuciones en materiales del LCH. El equipo de tratamiento está integrado por la Dra. Rager; la Dra Heidi Limbrunner, psicóloga; Ellen Cary, diestista registrada; y Carolyn Mangiaracina, Coordinadora de enfermeras e instructora sanitaria.
The Center for Disordered Eating is seeing patients temporarily at the Children's Specialty Center at Medical Center Plaza on CMC's main campus, 1001 Blythe Blvd., and will move to its permanent location at 3541 Randolph Rd. later this summer. For more information, please call Carolyn Mangiaracina at 704-381-HOPE (4673).
About Levine Children's Hospital
Levine Children's Hospital es un hospital con gran dedicación que cuenta con 234 camas y se encuentra en el campus principal del Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) in Charlotte. Offering more than 30 pediatric specialties, Levine is the most comprehensive children's hospital between Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Levine Children's Hospital's distinctions include the interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery programs; its organ transplant programs; a pediatric dialysis unit; and heart-lung bypass capabilities for newborns and pediatric patients. LCH has an inpatient pediatric rehabilitation unit, and also contains the Ricky Hendrick Centers for Intensive Care, which support both pediatric intensive and cardiovascular surgery patients. The hospital offers pediatric bone marrow transplants, and its children's emergency department is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Levine Children's Hospital is part of Carolinas HealthCare System, the largest healthcare system in the Carolinas and the third largest public system in the nation. CHS owns, leases or manages 23 hospitals in North and South Carolina, comprising some 4,900 licensed beds and more than 35,000 full-time or part-time employees. CMC, the system's flagship facility, serves as one of North Carolina's five Academic Medical Center Teaching Hospitals, providing residency training for more than 200 physicians in 15 specialties, including pediatrics.
