New clinic helping people with eating disorders is opening in Berrien County
STEVENSVILLE, Mich – A Clinic called “South Western Nutritional Wellness” that will be addressing eating disorders and Is set to open will be opening.
“That will be helpful for this community, I know it’s really hard for people to go out on their own and I think that if they have somebody there and a readily available resource it’s a lot easier than trying to search for something on their own,” Berrien County resident Jaden Wurn said.
The full service clinic would help people who are facing this disorder from having to travel far to receive the help they need.
“Over the years of being located in Berrien County we found that many of our eating disorder clients and that would include people that have binge eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia were having to travel to Kalamazoo or Grand Rapids or South Bend for services so we wanted to eventually put together a specialized eating disorder clinic,” Psychologist at the SouthWestern Michigan Clinic Marcia Wiinamacki said.
According to Winnimac eating disorders are prevalent and the number one mental health disease that leads to suicide.
“About a third of people seek treatement and move through the eating disorder process, a third seek treatment and manage their disorder and they may struggle for much of the rest their lives
but this is the alarming statistic about a third of them will die from this disorder,” Wiinamacki said.
Sharing space with the “Well of grace Ministries” the clinic expects to see 10 to 15 patients per week whom are women from the ages of 12 to 25.
The clinic will offer help to family members of someone dealing with an eating disorder in the form of support groups.
Berrien County resident Jaden Wurn says she has family suffering from this illness and this neighborhood resource will impact many in a positive way.
“I think there’s a lot of people struggling with issues that don’t come out and don’t say anything about it but maybe now they’ll be more encouraged,” Wurn said.