Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, a nonprofit dedicated to the treatment of psychiatric and addictive disorders since 1931, said it is opening the only eating disorders program in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey to provide a full year of integrated treatment.
The hospital in a prepared statement said eating disorders typically warrant what it termed a “fragmented approach that causes patients to change facilities whenever the disease changes course.”
A spokesperson said the program actively seeks Westchester County residents.
In announcing the program, the hospital cited its track record with other mental issues ”“ depression, addiction, anxiety ”“ that can accompany what the hospital called “disordered eating.”
The new program opens this month with three levels of care: inpatient, residential and a recovery support follow-up service that works with the patient”™s community support network for a full year after leaving Silver Hill. “This is when relapse is most common,” the hospital said.
Silver Hill said it is “uniquely qualified to manage all the complications of eating disorders because it is a psychiatric hospital and can treat all the emotional, behavioral and physical aspects of the mental illness with the highest mortality rate.”
Those with eating disorders often have coexisting psychiatric issues such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse or suicidal ideation, compounded by malnutrition and heart or other vital organ malfunction, Silver Hill said.
“Fifty percent of patients with eating disorders have another mental illness or a dual disorder,” said Sigurd Ackerman, president and medical director of Silver Hill. “The nature of the disease also means that many fight physical medical conditions, as well. Treating these together is essential if a patient is to have a positive outcome. As a psychiatric hospital, we can prescribe all appropriate pharmacological interventions. There is a psychiatrist on our campus 24/7, and we have a multidisciplinary team of specially trained psychologists, social workers, dietitians and nurses to work with each patient.”
Erin I. Kleifield, former staff psychologist with the inpatient eating disorder unit at Cornell University Medical College, will lead the program. “We”™ve spent over a year designing the program and have completely renovated the space,” Ackerman said. “I am confident that with Dr. Kleifield and her staff, we can make a tremendous difference in the lives of many.”
