Status of Women Committee on Feb. 5th, 2014

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

Yes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Dr. Elliott.

[Dr. April S. Elliott]

Oh, definitely.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

That's terrific.

In drilling down, I'd like to look at the various pieces. Do you need a registry? What are the best practices? What do we need in terms of treatment, the range of treatment? I know long-term treatment is a real issue in this country and families are forced out of the country. The last piece would be research funding.

I'm just going to let you talk. Be as specific as you can. Say, ”Recommendation one, this is what we want: the registry, best practices, treatment, and research funding”.

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

The final part of my discussion listed what we need to do. If it's okay with you, I'm going to read my points. I have seven bullet points that I think we need to do.

We need to improve early identification of young people with eating disorders. That means comprehensive education and training of health professionals.

We need more effective treatment modalities. As I said, we have some and they're okay, but that's not good enough. That's where the clinicians and the researchers need to work together to find those modalities.

We need to make sure evidence-based treatment programs are available in every province so individuals will have equal and immediate—immediate—access to these programs. The spectrum of treatment settings that need to be available in Canada and to Canadian citizens include in-patient facilities, out-patient programs, treatment programs, and residential programs. Right now in Ontario we do not have a residential treatment program and kids who need that need to go south of the border. We, our health care system, is paying for that, when we have fantastic and skilled clinicians here in Ontario who could easily treat these kids in the right setting.

We need to ensure immediate access to programming because there's very good evidence to show that early diagnosis and aggressive evidence-based treatments do make a difference in their recovery.

We need to increase awareness of these disorders to the general population, as we just said, especially for those who work with children and young women.

We also need to work on prevention. We need effective eating disorder prevention, and that starts with all of us. We need to address prevention at multiple levels to ensure consistent messaging, and we need to collaborate with and across sectors of health, education, and sport.

Finally, we need to conduct state-of-the-art research and provide excellence in clinical care. We need a research agenda and we need research funds. If you go to any international meeting, Canada has the people there who are doing the research, but we just can't find the funds. There are really skilled people here right across the country, especially working with children and adolescents and young adults.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Dr. Katzman, I really appreciate that. You've given us seven very strong recommendations. I'm going to go through some of these and ask if you could table them with the committee.

You mentioned early identification and comprehensive training. Could you table exactly what you would like to see? I know Ontario has a great model for training physicians.

You talked about more effective treatment modalities. I'm wondering if you could table how we get to those more effective treatment modalities, which I assume requires more research.

You also mentioned we need these programs in every province. Could you table which provinces have them and where we are lacking? We really need that information.

You talked about the range of treatments that are available, and that in Ontario we are paying when families are forced out of the province. Can you table what that is costing?

Very quickly, because I'm running out of time, what would you like to see that research agenda look like? The more specific you are, the better it will help our report.

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

How much time do we have? I'm happy to put this in a report for you.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

A report would be great. If you could table that with the committee, I'd be extremely grateful.

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

Do you want me to talk to this, then?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

You have a minute. Again, I am the minute person.

I am sorry.

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

I'm not sure I could do this justice in a minute. There were so many things that were tabled.

Let me see, what did we talk about?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Dr. Katzman, I think what Ms. Duncan is asking for is to have more detail on the point that you stated so well. Maybe the clerk will communicate with you. When we have the blues, we will be able to send out what is really required. I think that will help the committee very much, because what you have stated with your seven points was really helpful.

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

I'm happy to do that.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Ms. Duncan, I ate into your time, though.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

No, that was terrific. We can table that.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

That was fine? Okay.

I want to thank you, Dr. Elliott and Dr. Katzman, for your patience with me, your passion, and your dedication. Your testimony is very helpful to the committee.

I will invite the members of the committee who may not have had a chance to ask questions to these witnesses to please forward them to the clerk, and then we will forward them to the witnesses and they can answer them in writing.

Again, I thank you very much for your time.

[Dr. Debra Katzman]

Madam Chair, you've done a great job. Thank you so much.

[Dr. April S. Elliott]

Thank you. Merci.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you.

We'll see each other next week, on Monday.

The meeting is adjourned.