<p>
</p>
<p>That is due to people being wedded to the idea of employer-paid medical insurance, which seems to be the unspoken consensus among all of the political viewpoints regarding medical insurance in the US.</p>
<p>“When a student dies of mental illness, parents sue the university and often win.” </p>
<p>What?</p>
<p>Oh, no. There are lots of people outside that consensus – we’ve just conceded that we don’t have a winnable political fight at this time. But you are right that that is a big part of the employer paternalism issue.</p>
<p>Flossy, what what? Deaths from mental illness are usually suicide, though anorexia-related heart attacks and strokes happen too. So do overdoses. Any time those deaths occur on campus, the colleges get sued on the argument that they failed to intervene, didn’t notify the right people, provide the right services, etc. These are expensive, winnable lawsuits.</p>
<p>Oh my Lord! I read the article itself. The woman went to the health care center for a LUMP in her breast (which thankfully, was nothing) and they began this harassment of her simply because she was a thin woman. Many Asians are tiny, petite people. Her own family doctor knows that nothing is wrong. Where does Yale get off insisting on a nutritionist, and blood tests, and mental health care because the woman is thin??</p>
<p>Oh heck, yeah…I’d go to war on that one. I have a very thin daughter as well, who happens to be really tall like me. You could see all her ribs popping out when she was little kid. She has ALWAYS been this way and enjoys phenomenal health, as her doctor knows. He even once called me, asking WHY she was fine when she had some condition briefly that hospitalizes some kids. She was playing in the other room, just fine, on her antibiotics.</p>
<p>Thank GOD I don’t have an awful or invasive family doctor.</p>
<p>I am just appalled at this overreaching policy and what happened to this woman. If the woman says she is fine, then you leave her alone, especially without ANY evidence to the contrary. It’s not like they saw tracks on her arm or evidence of ill health. She’s been spending loads of time at the health center because she had the misfortune of asking the wrong party about her breast lump.</p>
<p>This weight is not underweight IF IT IS NORMAL FOR HER. That’s the key. There is an average range, but there are always people who fall slightly outside the range both ways, who are absolutely fine.</p>
<p>I hope she doesn’t need to sue, but she might. </p>
<p>Okay, the definition of mental illness is being stretched to include drug overdoses and it’s somehow the fault of the college health system if a bulimic has a heart attack. Lord help us all.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why should she HAVE to “prove” anything to Yale, just because she happens to fall below the average weight for her height? Her word should be enough, and Yale has no business intervening beyond the scope of the reason for her visit in the first place (breast lump) absent her consent. She is an adult woman. She can seek treatment or not seek treatment for anything she likes. Absent clear evidence of impending danger, Yale has no business intervening.</p>
<p>I’m shocked that some think this is ok, especially in this fat-as-heck country we live in. Everyone thin looks thinner compared to all the overweight people out there. </p>
<p>This is her business alone, and only she has the right to determine her care. Yale has no right to compel her to continue to appear. </p>
<p>I’m curious how this woman’s weight would be viewed by doctors in her country of heritage? Also, for women, there is an objective biological indicator of insufficient body weight–menstruation stops. I don’t recall seeing this mentioned but this indicator could help answer the question of whether she’s so thin that it’s become a health risk. </p>
<p>Yale doesn’t require her to appear. It just tells her that she can’t stay at Yale unless she does so. Because it’s also a private entity, it can do so. I certainly think it’s debatable what criteria Yale should apply to determine if somebody is at too much of a health risk to remain at school, but it’s not really true that it’s not Yale’s business if its students have life-threatening conditions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Clearly it’s a requirement for remaining a student at this college that the student be within normal BMI range for height. There is nothing that says this student has to continue at this college if they don’t want to. There are many situations where weight comes into play in contractual situations e.g. airline seats. </p>
<p>If relevant medical tests came back normal (heart health, electrolyte balance, hormone levels and menstruation), then they need to leave her alone. They are overbearing and intrusive. It’s appalling.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Airlines typically care more about fitting in the seat with the armrest down than how much you weigh.</p>
<p>The paternal behavior isn’t the problem. The lack of judgment is. Once appropriate assessments have cleared the person for any obvious medical issues and a complete medical history is taken, it seems that the right course is to leave the person alone. </p>
<p>Remember that we’re only hearing one side of each of these stories.</p>
<p>I’ve known several anorexic women who have faced this issue in college. Different schools have different policies. My understanding is that at Smith, if you have an eating disorder, you must leave campus. Immediately. At other schools – Yale is clearly one of them – they monitor your weight on a regular basis, and if you continue to lose weight/stay the same, you probably have to leave.</p>
<p>Two of the issues are: is this any business of the college? what criteria do they use to determine if you have an eating disorder? </p>
<p>I am not an expert in eating disorders, but denial is often one component. Many bulimic and anorexic women deny that they have a problem, and many even embrace this lifestyle. For whatever reason, Yale has decided to err on the side of caution and use a one-standard-fits-all criteria, possibly because they’ve been burned when they’ve just taken the student’s word for his/her eating habits.</p>
<p>Eating disorders are serious. I applaud colleges for taking them seriously (they didn’t when I went to school). People who have eating disorders need help. And they need more help than just being told to gain weight – they need counseling, often in residential settings, and preferably involving the entire family. </p>
<p>My overall point is that this is not a black-and-white issue. I can’t get too outraged at this student’s situation, because I get where Yale is coming from – even if it seems draconian. I understand that from the student’s perspective it is frustrating, and that Yale should consider having an appeals process. Yale has to act in loco parentis, and I’d rather them be vigilant about eating disorders than ignore them. </p>
<p>Let me be clear that I applaud the university for taking the issue of eating disorders seriously. It’s right to have the student address the issue with health services, agree to be tested, have a session or two (or more) with a mental health counselor, even check in once or twice to be sure that her weight has not changed. </p>
<p>Where I really part ways is when a young woman is ordered to gain weight in order to retain her place at the university regardless of her actual health and medical history. Now, it’s true, we don’t know the back story. We don’t know if she was asked to supply a medical history or consent for health services to discuss her situation with her personal physican or her parents. We don’t know if she met with a counselor and all sorts of red flags popped up. But having been through a very similar series of events with my daughter, I can believe that things happened the way the author of that article says they did. And if the university ordered my daughter to gain weight without looking at her history and seeing that there’s been a continuous weight gain over the course of her life while also seeing that she’s always been underweight without any health issues, I’d be mighty upset. </p>
<p>Here’s an earlier article about this issue. <a href=“Numbers Game | The New Journal”>http://www.thenewjournalatyale.com/2010/12/numbers-game/</a></p>
<p>I am 5’7’’ and I am less than 100 lb. I am a 13-year old girl. All my siblings are tall and skinny. </p>
<p>Got it. I shouldn’t even consider Yale. Hope other colleges won’t follow this example. </p>
<p>@Jonri, you’ve posted a story about people with acknowledged eating disorders. The issue in this case is not about eating disorders but about the correlation between a low BMI and an eating disorder. It’s not always the case. </p>
<p>" And no school or camp wants a kid in their care to die on their watch." </p>
<p>With congenital heart disorder, my chances are getting slimmer and slimmer … </p>
<p>Well, how about if the young woman in the article has suitemates who have repeatedly called health services to tell them that their suitemate spends half an hour gagging in the communal bathroom after every meal? And yet the young woman persists in telling everyone that she’s healthy and feels great???</p>