Region Västernorrland reported 130 beltings - that is, a person is strapped in by the arms and legs - in 2021. This is significantly more than in many other regions in Sweden, statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare show.

Mission review has met two mothers and a father of children who have been treated for anorexia in Västernorrland.

Parents who fought for several years for their seriously ill children to receive the right care within the framework of LPT (the Compulsory Psychiatric Care Act).

- The whole family is traumatized after what we have been through.

She was tube fed for nine months without eating anything.

And we tube fed every day, several times a day.

Often under the belt, says one of the mothers.

Treated in adult psychiatry

The children in question in Västernorrland have been admitted on and off to adult psychiatry for several years among adult patients who suffered from serious psychosis, and the parents believe that the children routinely ended up in booster beds and received tube feeding, but no individually tailored eating disorder care.

Since September 2021, there are specialized inpatient places for children in psychiatry in Västernorrland, but the parents are afraid that it is not enough.

- The problem is that at our hospital, when you are in inpatient care, you do not receive treatment for your eating disorder.

The treatment is to increase your BMI, then you will be sent away, says the father.

"Equal worth"

The parents compare it with eating disorder care in other parts of the country.

Among other things, one of the children was looked after in another region for a period.

And then the daughter was not belted at all, but when she got home again she was put in the belt again.

- It shouldn't have to depend on where you live.

If you can do this in a better way in other hospitals, then you must be able to share that knowledge and competence today in 2022. It is a scandal that people have to consider uprooting an entire family and moving and changing countries in order to get care.

It's the same tax money, says one of the mothers.

- Our children are just as valuable as children in other parts of the country, says the other mother.