Island Health Cancels Eating Disorder Contract with Telus

Island Health is right to cancel a contract that saw Telus Health provide services to people living with eating disorders, BC Green Party interim leader Jeremy Valeriote said Thursday.

But it should consult with people with lived or living experience on replacing the services promptly, he added.

“If it wasn’t a budget cut, it looks like an admission it wasn’t working very well for two years,” said Valeriote, adding that this year’s budget maintains health spending. “That means for two years people were getting substandard help.”

The contract started on Nov. 1, 2023, and was to pay Telus Health Solutions $292,500 for one year to support up to 35 people on southern Vancouver Island.

The contract resulted from a request Island Health put out seeking proposals from organizations “with expertise in eating disorders” to provide virtual and in-person counselling and support services, including access to psychiatrists, psychologists, dietitians and primary care providers.

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating are complex mental illnesses “involving relentless unhealthy thoughts and behaviours towards food, weight and body shape,” according to Island Health.

The care was to be for adults or young adults who have had a persistent struggle with an eating disorder and haven’t benefited from traditional recovery-focused treatment. It has been described as filling a gap in the services available.

When Island Health awarded the contract to Telus Health, members of the group Vancouver Island Voices for Eating Disorders, or VIVED, criticized the decision as well as the failure of Island Health to accept offers of input from people with lived experience.

“We recently learned that this contract is not being renewed,” Valeriote said during question period at the B.C. legislature Thursday. “Privatization of health care is a serious concern, especially when there is no reliable continuity of care.”

He asked what programs and services would be in place to provide care to adults with eating disorders on southern Vancouver Island when the contract ends.

Health Minister Josie Osborne did not answer the question but said the government takes the impact of privatization on the health-care system “incredibly seriously” and will continue to strengthen the public system.

Staff for the minister said media questions about the contract and services for people living with eating disorders would be better directed to Island Health. Nobody from the health authority was made available Thursday afternoon.

Nor did a spokesperson for Telus Health respond to a request for comment.

It’s not a surprise Island Health won’t renew the contract, said Celeste Macevicius, who is involved with VIVED and has supported friends living with eating disorders.

Island Health had already been reducing services offered through Telus Health, and there was a sense that while those services worked well for a few people, they did not work for many, said Macevicius.

People who accepted help from Telus Health had to give up access to other services available in the region.

Now that the contract is ending there does not seem to be a plan to reconnect them, she said, adding that there is a wait-list of as much as 15 months.

Services for people living with eating disorders work best when they are well connected and flexible enough for people’s levels of care to change depending on their needs, she said, adding that at VIVED they see many people who are struggling to manage with an eating disorder on their own.

“It felt like this was political gesturing from the start,” Macevicius said about the contract with Telus Health. “I think now it’s resorted back to Island Health seeming to take less initiative and the province doesn’t prioritize eating disorders, so I don’t really know what we’re left with.”