Our outpatients have many treatment options

The Nutrition Clinic, the nationally recognized outpatient treatment program at Upstate New York Eating Disorder Service in Elmira, has been growing rapidly in recent years and now offers a range of services in offices across the Southern Tier and Central New York.

We have been treating eating disorder patients since 1990.

Most treatment centers don’t offer the scope of outpatient programs we offer, said Carolyn Hodges Chaffee, the owner and CEO of Upstate New York Eating Disorder Service.

“It’s very seldom that you find a full multidisciplinary program,” she said. “You typically find people working in an outpatient setting and they might have relationships with other clinicians, but it is seldom under one roof, with physician supervision, as it is here.”

Eating disorder services: We treat those struggling with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, EDNOS, binge eating disorder, compulsive eating and compulsive exercise.

Nutrition services: We provide nutrition counseling for weight loss, special diet instructions, unintentional weight loss, nutritional support and bariatric patients.

Medical services: Medical monitoring is provided by our physician.

Here are some of the benefits you’ll find in working with the staff at The Nutrition Clinic:

■ We have outpatient services at four locations:

Elmira, 1003 Walnut St.

Ithaca, 208 E. State St., Studio 5B.

Syracuse, Ophelia’s Place, 407 Tulip St., Liverpool.

Vestal, 503 Plaza Drive.

■ Our IOPs offer flexible treatment schedules across upstate: This provides us the ability to transition patients from our partial hospitalization program as well as individuals from other treatment programs.  It can also be a treatment option for those needing more support than outpatient treatment to avoid going to a higher level of care.

Treatment outcomes are much better when the patient can transition gradually from hospitalization to outpatient. It is very difficult to go from being in a supportive environment 24/7 to one hour a week in outpatient.

The intensive outpatient program is three hours, three days a week. 

■ We see outpatients more frequently than other programs: We see patients weekly initially, tailoring their treatment program based on their individual needs, Carolyn said. “With eating disorder patients, we know we are looking at long-term care. The average length of treatment can range from 6 months to 2-3 years.”

■ Our free case management service: We help all eating disorder patients receive the care that they need, regardless of whether they are referred to the Nutrition Clinic, Sol Stone Center or to another program.  Our case manager, Charlie Jenkins has helped link patients to treatment all over the world.

■ Our cutting-edge testing provides an accurate picture of a patient’s condition: Metabolic testing and body composition analysis are used to initially assess every patient. Ongoing reassessments with these tests guide treatment recommendations.

Metabolic testing accurately assesses the nutritional status of a patient.

Body composition analysis measures the body’s lean mass and muscle mass and the results help show the impact of malnutrition on the body.

“We are able to identify nutritional problems much sooner because of our testing, and that allows us to plan the treatment based on each patient’s specific needs,” Carolyn said.

Outpatient treatment is critical to recovery. Full recovery is possible, but it is more than simply weight restoration. It is a gradual process that occurs as life outside of the eating disorder becomes much more important than the eating disorder. 

Outpatient treatment is where most of the recovery occurs. 

This article was featured in the spring edition of Food for Thought, the free quarterly newsletter from Upstate New York Eating Disorder Service. To see the rest of the spring edition, send an email to enc1003@aol.com and ask them to put you on the mailing list!