Thursday, Oct. 19
15:45 – 16:45 (1 hr)
Meeting Room: Orca (3rd floor – B Tower)
Jennifer Couturier*, MD; Kathryn Trottier, PhD; Linda Liu, RN

CanMEDS Roles:

1. Health Advocate
2. Collaborator
3. Medical Expert

At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Identify the nine key opportunities for improving care for people with eating disorders and their caregivers; 2) List first- and second-line eating disorder treatments for adolescents and adults with eating disorders according to evidence and expert consensus; and 3) Discuss barriers and gaps in practice to equitably assessing, treating, monitoring, and caring for people with eating disorders.

This workshop will provide an overview of the eating disorders quality standard, emphasizing areas for quality improvement. Each presenter will demonstrate how the various quality statements can be applied to improve care for adolescents and adults with eating disorders and their caregivers, particularly in relation to promoting equitable access to treatment, transitions from youth to adult services, and evidence-based psychotherapies. Discussion with the audience pertaining to implementation facilitators and barriers will be sought.
Methods: In February 2022, Ontario Health began development of the eating disorder quality standard. This process included recruiting an expert advisory committee, analyzing available Ontario data, prioritizing outcomes and key topic areas, developing quality statements and indicators, identifying tools and resources to support implementation, and consulting groups of interest. Quality statements and indicators were developed through an environmental scan, guideline review, and public feedback.
Results: The advisory committee prioritized nine areas for improvement, including comprehensive assessment; level of care; transition from youth to adult health care services; psychotherapy; monitoring and medical stabilization; support for family and caregivers; physical health, mental health, and addiction comorbidities; promoting equity; and care for people who are not receiving active treatment.
Conclusions: This quality standard is an evidence-based resource outlining what high-quality care looks like. The goal is to help people with eating disorders, and their families and caregivers, understand what high-quality care should look like from clinicians and health care organizations and to encourage these same clinicians and organizations to prioritize improvement efforts and measure success.

References:

1. National Guideline Alliance. Eating disorders: recognition and treatment. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [Internet]. London (GB): Author; 2017 [cited 27 Feb 2023]. Available from: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng69/evidence/full-guideline-pdf-161214767896
2. Couturier J, Isserlin L, Norris M, et al. Canadian practice guidelines for the treatment of children and adolescents with eating disorders. J Eat Disord 2020;8(1):4.