Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Goldstein for raising this really important issue with the House. It is a very important issue, not just here but right throughout the community and particularly in my home electorate on the Central Coast.

Eating disorders are an extremely complex pathology, often with an unknown aetiology, and that's why medical professionals often find it quite difficult to treat eating disorders, particularly in that sub-acute, post-acute phase, as the member for Higgins was just describing only moments ago. Along with eating disorders in the acute phase, there are quite severe complications that can be often life-threatening. We look at electrolyte imbalances and cardiovascular and cardiac complications that can be life-threatening to individuals who are suffering from this illness. I want to acknowledge that this disease and the pathology of eating disorders haven't been given the attention they deserve throughout the medical community, and they haven't been given the attention they deserve across all levels of government. We need to make sure that we're discussing it in places like this and making sure it is at the front of our minds and top of our list of priorities when we discuss it at the governmental level.

Eating disorders have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness in Australia. The complications, as have been discussed, are severe malnutrition; electrolyte imbalances, particularly around sodium and phosphate which result in complications with the heart and brain; cardiovascular complications such as cardiomyopathy and enlarged heart; long QT syndrome which can cause arrhythmia and electrical disturbances of the heart; and bradycardia which is a slowing of the heart rate—all of which can impact a patient, not just in symptomatology but also in mortality.

Throughout Australia we have hundreds of thousands of people suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorders—and that's only to name a few. There are quite a lot of subcategories of the eating disorders that are being treated by our psychiatry specialists across the country. I'll just explain some of the symptomatology. We look at symptoms such as anxiety and depression, but you also see things like amenorrhoea, presyncope, hair loss, skin changes, very low BMI, hypotension—low blood pressure—slow heart rate and loss of muscle mass, all of which are quite debilitating to the patient suffering from an eating disorder. It's also important to touch on the electrolyte disturbances that were discussed previously. On your electrolyte panels, you see disturbances, particularly in sodium, that I was talking about before, and leucopaenia and thrombocytopaenia—low platelets and low white blood cells—which can have an impact on a patient's immunity and that can have an impact on a patient's ability to clot if they're cut.

As a government, we are committed to early and effective intervention and treatment options for children and young adults with eating disorders. We acknowledge that more needs to be done. Like I've said before, more work needs to be undertaken to improve treatment options for individuals with or at risk of an eating disorder. Mental health presentations and conditions are at extremely high levels, particularly for eating disorders, and they only continue to rise. They really continued to rise during the pandemic, and that hasn't slowed down. The Royal Children's Hospital in Victoria saw a 63 per cent increase in presentations secondary to eating disorders. There was a 68 per cent increase in calls to the national helpline with the Butterfly Foundation. A study that was commissioned at the University of Sydney noted an 88 per cent increase in body image concerns, a 74 per cent increase in food restriction and a 66 per cent increase in binge eating. The numbers speak for themselves. It is a huge issue through our community and it really needs more attention in the medical community and across all levels of government.

That's why our commitments are so important. They've been discussed already, including $258 million to reduce the prevalence of eating disorders, increase access to care and improve eating disorder treatments. Once again I want to thank the member for Goldstein for raising this important issue and all the members who have spoken on this today. It needs to get more attention here, in the medical community and in the media so that we can continue to help people with eating disorders.

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