Levine Children's Hospital Opens Center for Disordered Eating
Levine Children's Hospital Opens Center for Disordered Eating
Supported by a three-year $567,000 grant from the Duke Endowment, the Levine Children’s Hospital (LCH) Center for Disordered Eating has begun seeing patients. The Center is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary program for outpatient management of eating disorders in metropolitan Charlotte.
Medical care, psychological counseling and nutrition education are three necessary elements of treatment and will all be offered under one roof, making the Center very unique. Previously, patients had to travel to multiple locations for these services.
“One of the largest impediments to successful treatment is the time, hassle and expense of going to separate places for those services,” said Kristin Rager, MD, MPH, Director of Adolescent Medicine at LCH. “Consolidating all aspects of treatment in one location makes it easier for patients to get help.”
In addition to treatment, the grant will fund community outreach where the treatment team will discuss topics such as self esteem, body image and healthy eating and physical activity.
In 2007, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey administered to students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle schools and high schools demonstrated that disordered eating is occurring among teens.
Results show that 40 percent of responding students in both middle schools and high schools are trying to lose weight. Four percent of high school students surveyed answered ‘yes’ to vomiting or taking laxatives to lose weight or prevent weight gain.
“Nearly 67,000 students are enrolled in CMS middle and high schools, but those enrolled in private or parochial schools and students out of high school are not included in this survey,” said Dr. Rager. “I am concerned that these numbers are actually higher. Clearly, many young people could benefit from the multidisciplinary approach and prevention efforts we offer.”
Dr. Rager believes the Center is important because the large amount of publicity surrounding adolescent obesity causes the size and scope of eating disorder problems to be overlooked. While the traditional image of an eating disorder patient is a white female from an upper middle class background, the problem is increasing among adults, males, racial minorities and people in lower socio-economic groups.
Dr. Rager, who came to Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) in 2006, also is the Medical Director of Teen Health Connection, a nonprofit organization that partners with LCH to serve adolescents between the ages of 11 through 21. She is one of fewer than 500 physicians nationwide to be board certified in adolescent medicine.
In addition to the Duke Endowment grant, the Center is supported by in-kind contributions from LCH. The treatment team consists of Dr. Rager; Dr. Heidi Limbrunner, Psychologist; Ellen Cary, Registered Dietitian; and Carolyn Mangiaracina, Nurse Coordinator and a health educator.
The Center for Disordered Eating is seeing patients temporarily at the Children’s Specialty Center at Medical Center Plaza on CMC’s main campus, 1001 Blythe Blvd., and will move to its permanent location at 3541 Randolph Rd. later this summer. For more information, please call Carolyn Mangiaracina at 704-381-HOPE (4673).
About Levine Children’s Hospital
Levine Children's Hospital, is a dedicated 234-bed hospital located on the main campus of Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) in Charlotte. Offering more than 30 pediatric specialties, Levine is the most comprehensive children’s hospital between Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Levine Children’s Hospital’s distinctions include the interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery programs; its organ transplant programs; a pediatric dialysis unit; and heart-lung bypass capabilities for newborns and pediatric patients. LCH has an inpatient pediatric rehabilitation unit, and also contains the Ricky Hendrick Centers for Intensive Care, which support both pediatric intensive and cardiovascular surgery patients. The hospital offers pediatric bone marrow transplants, and its children’s emergency department is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Levine Children’s Hospital is part of Carolinas HealthCare System, the largest healthcare system in the Carolinas and the third largest public system in the nation. CHS owns, leases or manages 23 hospitals in North and South Carolina, comprising some 4,900 licensed beds and more than 35,000 full-time or part-time employees. CMC, the system’s flagship facility, serves as one of North Carolina’s five Academic Medical Center Teaching Hospitals, providing residency training for more than 200 physicians in 15 specialties, including pediatrics.
