Increasing professional skills for early identification
People who work in primary care, fitness and weight loss industries need to be aware of the importance of early intervention.
The eating disorder field has been slow to implement the concept of early intervention. This is unsettling as it is a known fact that prolonged duration of an eating disorder is likely to have harmful physical and psychological effects and make recovery less likely.
“I have no doubt that I would have avoided an acute stage if my teachers were able to identify something was wrong.”
Improving eating disorder health literacy of those in the medical, educational and health sectors is vital to increasing early identification of people in the formative stages of an eating disorder or who are at risk of developing an eating disorder.
Of particular importance is the training and supervision of generalist inpatient/outpatient mental health services in assessing and treating people with eating disorders.
Last updated on 22 April, 2013