Outcomes of professional development to support capacity to provide eating disorder treatment and exploration of service level barriers.

backgroundThe prevalence of eating disorders is increasing, with substantial impacts upon the person with the eating disorder, families, supports, and communities, as well as broad social and economic impacts. Most people who have an eating disorder either do not receive treatment, or experience substantial delay between symptom onset and treatment. To address the increasing prevalence and widespread impacts of eating disorders, both effective and accessible treatment interventions are required. There has been considerable focus on developing effective treatment interventions for eating disorders, but less attention has been given to increasing provision of treatment. This study reports on the impact of professional development for clinicians in increasing capacity to provide eating disorder treatment and perceived organisational barriers to doing so.

methodsAustralian mental health professionals and dietitians (N = 397) completed an online survey exploring perceived level of skill, knowledge and willingness to provide safe, effective treatment for people experiencing eating disorders before and after completing one of three sequences of training and/or supervision, allocated based on their prior training and experience in eating disorder treatment. Participants also reported on perceived organisational barriers to the provision of eating disorder treatment.

resultsParticipants reported significantly higher levels of knowledge, skill, and willingness to treat eating disorders after receiving professional development than at baseline. There were no differences in the degree of skill and knowledge change based on the type of professional development received, however, the change in willingness to treat eating disorders after receiving professional development was higher among participants who received supervision only than among those who received introductory training, treatment model training and supervision. Lack of knowledge, skills, and abilities in staff and lack of funding were the most strongly endorsed barriers. Greater endorsement of barriers was associated with lower willingness to treat eating disorders at the end of the program.

conclusionsLow cost, large scale professional development in eating disorder treatment has the potential for widespread impact on workforce capacity and subsequent availability of evidence-based treatment. Further exploration to address the impact of organisational barriers on implementation is needed.