Solutions for Eating Disorders
How is Kartini Clinic different than other treatment programs?
At Kartini Clinic we practice family-based treatment (FBT), an approach similar to the Maudsley Method. A significant difference, however, is our emphasis on a combined medical and psychiatric approach to treatment, rather than an exclusively psychiatric emphasis as is the norm at many other eating disorder programs. For example:
- Our hospitalization occurs on a medical ward not a psychiatric ward. We treat our patients like any other patient with a medical condition, albeit with a treatment protocol appropriate to their specific condition. Not only is this better for the patient but inpatient medical insurance benefits are often much more comprehensive than inpatient mental health benefits.
- For those traveling more than 50 miles for treatment we can assist with housing through a referral to our local Ronald McDonald house, an excellent charity that houses many of our patients and their families together. Best of all, it's a mere 2 minute walk from the hospital and our offices. Please ask our intake coordinator for more information. Ronald McDonald operates on a sliding scale but no one is turned away for financial reasons.
- Kartini Clinic is run by pediatricians, not psychiatrists, and consequently has a strong emphasis on prompt, adequate weight restoration as a prerequisite to normal growth and development. And we understand that children are not adults!
- Our doctors never turn over care of our patients to hospital doctors (aka "hospitalists"); we conduct hospital rounds on our patients 365 days a year. While we rely on the excellent, hardworking nurses of Legacy Emanual Children's Hospital, our patients never leave our care.
- When a patient is discharged from the hospital they come directly to the Kartini Day Treatment program and are cared for by the exact same team of doctors and therapists they came to know in the hospital. This level of coordinated care is unfortunately all too rare in the world of eating disorder treatment.
- We work closely with primary care pediatricians to provide up-to-date care for their patients. Consequently we require our patients to have a primary care doctor with whom we will work closely to assure continuity of care.
Our Treatment Philosophy
Eating disorders are complex medical conditions. New research in neurobiology and genetics strongly suggests that anorexia and bulimia are inherited conditions steered by powerful but poorly understood brain chemistry. Understanding the medical nature of eating disorders helps patients and their families to understand that parents do not cause this illness nor do children choose to have it. At the Kartini Clinic we work together as a multidisciplinary team of medical doctors, psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychotherapists to diagnose and control whatever environmental risk factors may precipitate or worsen an eating disorder; by using evidence-based medicine to achieve medical stabilization, combined with family, group, and individual psychotherapies, as appropriate, we help our patients achieve lasting physiological and psychological remission as well as personal healing and growth.
For more specific information about our treatment programs you may submit an online request for more information or simply call us on 503 249 8851 and ask for our intake coordinator.
