Status of Women committee  I'll happily do that.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely.

Status of Women committee  Yes. I think that parents aren't educated around what an eating disorder is, or even what the signs are. That's one thing, to have parents understand if suddenly their child is skipping meals, the lunch containers are coming back with food still in them, there is a problem and it needs to be addressed.

Status of Women committee  I don't think they need to immediately go to a medical professional, but you know.... Ms. Martin is a dietitian, so she'll be able to tell you very clearly that the data shows that eating a family meal together is really helpful. Eating with your family, everyone sitting together, has been shown to lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, eating disorders.

Status of Women committee  Once someone has been identified as being at risk, the minimum standard of care should be that you have access to a doctor who understands eating disorders, who understands the diagnostic criteria and the treatment options. You should absolutely have access, if needed, to a psychiatrist who can assess for such co-morbid conditions as anxiety, depression, or a trauma-related disorder.

Status of Women committee  I don't know that taking TV out of the house is a sustainable long-term solution. I think it's about teaching your children that what they see on TV is not real, it's an image; that images in magazines and on the Internet are tampered with; and that striving to have a body that looks like what you're seeing on TV will send you down the wrong path, because even the models don't look like that.

Status of Women committee  As I said, we know that shorter waiting lists are consistent with a better prognosis. Either you have this illness for one or two years, or you have it for many years. That's what the data tell us, and that's what we see at Sheena's Place. So in terms of recommendations, I would say shorter waiting lists, better access to treatment, more treatment options.

Status of Women committee  No. I think that's absolutely accurate.

Status of Women committee  Sure. I can provide the committee with more numbers. I don't have the numbers exactly off the top of my head, but I can submit them to you. Many of our clients, I would say about 30%, have had this illness for one to two years. Similarly, another 30% have suffered for more than 20 years.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Early screening and access to treatment.... When I worked at SickKids we did a family meeting every month where we would talk to parents and introduce them to our program. The theme month after month was, "We went to the doctor, we told them something was wrong with our child, the doctor said it's fine, the doctor didn't know where to send us, the doctor didn't know how to treat us."

Status of Women committee  That's right.

Status of Women committee  Yes. Absolutely. Ms. Martin noted earlier about children's growth curves. The first thing that we would always do when we got a child into the program was look at the way they had been growing normally until they had this intervention of an eating disorder. The idea is to get kids back on track of their own growth curve, not on some predetermined weight or shape that they want to be, or that they've decided would be best for them.

Status of Women committee  Yes, very correctly, thank you.

Status of Women committee  Yes, I believe that would be a very effective strategy for moving forward.

Status of Women committee  Sure. Psychiatrists in Canada are covered by OHIP—if you can find one, and if you can find one to treat eating disorders. I would say that within psychiatry, because this is a long-standing, entrenched illness, a lot of psychiatrists don't want to take eating disorder clients on.