Anyone Want To Own a Ranch? – Anorexia Nervosa
06 Feb 2007
"But how did you pay for the $250,000 treatment" I asked one of my patients? To my surprise she replied, "I applied and received a grant from the Canadian government". This huge sum of money shocked me. What amazed me more as a taxpayer was the money’s destination, Arizona. I decided to find out what treatment is worth $250,000 in the U.S. And who says our government is so stingy with medical care!
My patient’s teenage daughter was suffering from Anorexia Nervosa and various treatments, including those at the Hospital For Sick Children (HSC) in Toronto, had failed to cure this psychological disease. Now, doctors at HSC had referred her to The Remuda Ranch in Arizona, a live-in facility where she would be treated for several months.
Authorities claim there’s an epidemic of Anorexia Nervosa. Teenagers believe they are fat even though they are bone thin, and continue to lose weight by dieting, exercising, vomiting their food, using laxatives to purge their bowels or water pills to increase urination. The end result can be lethal.
But why in the name of Heaven do these adolescents want to cause themselves and their families such extreme grief? Psychiatrists say teenagers want to be accepted by society and their peers and associate thinness with beauty, sex and desirability. And that the model industry has helped to reinforce this unhealthy and unattainable image.
Curing anorexia nervosa is not easy. Over the years I’ve seen several families who have desperately gone from one doctor to another seeking help for their daughter. But until this case I was not aware that Canada was sending the toughest cases, requiring live-in care, to the Remuda Ranch and other facilities in the U.S.
I’ve never been to Remuda Ranch but my research shows their therapy is a combination of living in the Arizona desert and intensive medical care by a team of psychiatrists, psychologists, nutritionists, Master Level therapists, registered nurses and college students.
They say this balanced program helps patients achieve an improved sense of personal identity and how to cope with success and failure without declining food.
And there is a full equestrian program for patients, as one would expect at an Arizona ranch.
There’s also a powerful Christian message as daily church service is mandatory. One recovered patient says, "The staff were picked by God". Another reports that, "At Remuda, God is absolutely undeniable. And with God’s helping hand, miracles are possible".
I’m never treated anyone with this disease. Possibly these patients, who are all women at Remuda, do need outdoor horseback riding, biblical teaching each day to find God and all this supporting staff. And good sense dictates this hands-on approach for several months must be more effective than treatment on an outpatient basis. Remuda claims that one year after leaving the ranch 95 percent of patients are still cured of this disease.
But I encountered several surprises while researching this column. I discovered millions of dollars are exported to the U.S. to treat eating disorders. For instance, last year the Province of Ontario sent 45 patients to the U.S. to treat this disorder at a cost of $3,791,440. This does not include patients sent to the U.S. from other provinces!
It was strange that I could not obtain information from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. One of its specialists on Anorexia Nervosa stated she knew nothing about Remuda Ranch even though the hospital was sending patients to this facility. Why should there be such reluctance to report this information?
It’s also ironic that we continue to fight a two-tired system of medical care in Canada. Yet the government is generous in exporting hard-earned taxpayers money to "pay-as-you-go" private medical care in the U.S.
I have no desire to own a ranch in Canada. But I am sure a Canadian entrepreneur would be quite willing to take these millions and create a similar facility here. We have thousands of acres of land, anorexia specialists, no shortage of religious teachers, tons of students and other personnel. And I’m sure we could find the horses. It would keep these millions in Canada rather than have this money exported to the U.S.
