WA Eating Disorders Outreach and Consultation Service
The WA Eating Disorders Outreach and Consultation Service (WAEDOCS) is a State-wide Service that aims to ensure youth and adults in WA with an eating disorder can access optimal best practice care. This will be facilitated through up-skilling and inspiring health care professionals to deliver evidence-based high-quality eating disorders care.
WAEDOCS is a multi-disciplinary team comprising a nurse practitioner, consultant clinical psychologist, consultant liaison psychiatrist, specialist physician, senior dietitian, clinical nurse specialist (mental health) and peer support worker.
What we provide
- Consultation liaison, mentoring and support to help clinicians of all disciplines to manage their patient(s)
- Clinician training and education
- Resources to guide safe inpatient, outpatient and community management of people with eating disorders.
What we are unable to provide
- Case management or governance for or of the patient
- Treatment and/or support directly to patients and/or significant others
- Inpatient services.
Consultations
WAEDOCS can be contacted for consultations via the contact details below. WAEDOCS is available to assist medical practitioners and clinicians caring for people with eating disorders throughout WA. This includes, but is not limited to, Emergency Departments, Medical Wards, Mental Health Units, Hospital in the Home (HiTH) teams, General Practitioners and Community Health and Mental Health Services from the public, private and community managed sectors.
Clinician Education and Guidelines
WAEDOCS can be contacted for training and education regarding clinical guidelines, resources and consultation. These sessions can be provided to a service or provided one-to-one as mentoring support.
WAEDOCS also provides education and training sessions throughout the year. The details can be found on the Education Calendar (PDF).
The Inside Out Institute of Eating Disorders (external site) is offering free access to an online training programme for both public and private clinicians. The Essentials training package is a foundation eLearning training for health professionals that comprehensively address the nature, identification, assessment, treatment and management of people with an eating disorder. The training is suitable for Medical Practitioners, Nurses, Dietitians, Psychologists and other allied health professionals. This training program meets the basic training requirements of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration competency framework for clinicians training in eating disorders.
To assist medical practitioners and clinicians, WAEDOCS has developed a Quick Reference Guides for Eating Disorders that can be accessed by clicking on the Management of Youth and Adults guide (PDF).
Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS)
On the 1st November 2019, new Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) item numbers were introduced to assist clinicians with providing evidence based care for eligible people living with eating disorders. Further information about the new item numbers, referral pathways, EDE-Q 6 and cheat sheets can be found through The National Eating Disorders Collaboration (external site).
Support for Consumers and Carers
Although WAEDOCS is unable to support consumers and carers directly, guidelines about what to expect from an inpatient admission for consumers and their carers, as well as a set of resources are available.
These can be accessed here:
- Consumer guide: What I can expect from an admission? (PDF)
- Carer guide: What can my loved one expect from an admission? (PDF)
- Resources for carers (PDF)
The Butterfly Foundation (external site) has an Eating Disorder Helpline on 1800 334 673.
National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) (external site) is a collaboration of people and organisations with expertise and interest in eating disorders. NEDC strives to support a nationally consistent approach to the prevention, early intervention and treatment of eating disorders.