Baptist Behavioral Health - Eating Disorders
Pediatric Eating Disorders Day Treatment (Intensive)

Children and adolescents with eating disorders need help to heal from their illnesses and to address the anxieties, identity confusion, fear of inadequacy and coping-skill deficits that typically fuel eating disorders. A supportive - but challenging - environment is the best setting for achieving these outcomes.

Structure is needed to recover from an eating disorder, but flexibility is necessary to address the needs of a developing adolescent. Our individualized treatment programs, activities, and therapies allow for this flexibility and help our patients long-term by fostering independence.

Our Treatment Program
We are located in Suite 601 Howard Building at Baptist Medical Center, which houses the Adolescent Behavioral Health Day Stay Unit. We offer the following multidisciplinary services for our patients (children and adolescents up to age 21) and their families:

Meal support during our hours of operation (patients typically eat breakfast and lunch with staff and share dinner with their families). Nutrition education and nutritional rehabilitation. Group and individual psychotherapy to improve coping skills, self-image and self-development, and body image. Education and counseling to help families and patients understand important aspects of eating disorders and recovery and facilitate effective communication and support for the entire family. Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions to address food fears, food avoidance, fears and discomfort about eating in public, deviant-eating behaviors and heightened self-consciousness. Art and expressive therapy to help with self-expression. Pastoral counseling for patients who would like to integrate spirituality into their treatment. Supervised exercise and fitness programming is available for patients who have medical clearance and wish to include exercise into their treatment.

Contact Information Main Number 904.202.4959 Roxanne Louh, PsyD, Clinical Coordinator of Psychological Services Lynn Sorensen, RD, LD/N Clinical Coordinator of Nutritional Services Baptist Medical Center Howard Bldg - Suite 601 800 Prudential Drive Jacksonville, FL 32207 View a Map Hours: 8:30am - 4:00pm Monday - Friday

Patients who need more intensive supervision and support can be transferred to the hospitals's Behavioral Health Inpatient unit, which provides treatment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To provide patients with stability, the treatment team remains consistent throughout such transitions.

Out-of-town patients and families can make arrangements to stay at the beautiful Ronald McDonald House, located within walking distance from Baptist Medical Center (downtown). The Ronald McDonald House offers nominal rates and private sleeping and bathing accommodations. Meals and nighttime activities are also available.

Treatment Goals

1. Reversal of eating disorder symptoms, which can include: unhealthy weight loss, food restriction, binge eating, and purging. Our treatment setting's structure is very helpful to reversing an eating disorder's momentum. It provides a time for patients to focus on their lives and self without having to deal with external stresses and expectations. It is common for patients to feel that their eating disorder is the core of who they are; that it is their most reliable coping strategy, their main source of pride and/or their way to feel in control of their lives. Treatment helps patients address issues related to self-image and helps them find healthy ways to meet their needs.



2. Medical stabilization, healthy weight restoration and/or maintenance and nutritional rehabilitation. Patients and their families will learn and begin to practice the tenets of recovery, which include reasonable eating, reasonable exercise and making peace with one's body. Patients and their families will be challenged to make lifestyle changes to support the maintenance of the "recovery habit". Our team will provide a target weight range, based on a patient's individual needs. While we firmly believe hat a patient's weight is not the most important factor in his or her personal growth and recovery, research and clinical experience agree that an eating disorder's grip remains difficult to loosen if a person's weight is not restored to near its ideal range. Our dietary staff will provide education and give guidance about nutritional needs for maintaining a healthy weight range and healthy lifestyle. Our patients and their families learn to use dietary exchanges to make healthy food choices and to modify intake based on activity level changes.



3. Treatment of other illnesses and issues that may be related to maintenance of an eating disorder. While an eating disorder may be the reason a patient seeks treatment, we will certainly address all issues that interfere with his or her quality of life.



4. Support of patients and families. People who suffer from eating disorders and their families often feel terribly confused, out of control, angry, scared and misunderstood. Education about the illness and continuous support helps patients and their families feel more prepared to take on the challenges posed by the illness and recovery.
   
   
5. Psycho-education and hands-on-training for the patient and family is provided to help everyone better negotiate the recovery process. Understanding the dangerous complications that eating disorders pose to an individual's physical and emotional health is important, as is recognizing the warning signs associated with such dangers. Education and family therapy sessions help guide parents in their struggles to know when to swiftly intervene and take control of the eating disorder and when to give their developing teenager control of his or her life, growth an decisions. An eating disorder tends to fracture a family's interpersonal relations and communication, and our team can provide advice and guidance on handling these stresses, including such areas as meal and post-meal times, return to school and general communication about a child's health and wellness.

Information and Referrals
For admission to and/or information about the program, contact the Clinical Coordinator of Psychological Services, Roxanne Louh, PsyD, or Clinical Coordinator of Nutrition Services, Lynn Sorensen, RD, LD/N, at 904.202.4959.

Online Resources
The content provided here is for informational purposes only, and is not designed to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease, or replace the professional medical advice you receive from your physician. Below are links to other World Wide Web sites with information and resources about eating disorders. You may find these sites helpful, but please remember we do not control or endorse the information presented on these Web sites, nor do these sites endorse the information contained here.

Academy for Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders Information