GroundED – A mobile supporting safe and connected eating disorder recovery

Organisation / Service

Centre for Clinical Interventions, North Metropolitan Health Service, Western Australia

GroundED is a co-designed mobile app, delivering eating-disorder focussed cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-ED) to clients (18+ years) who are referred to the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) in Western Australia. 

Clients can access support as soon as they are referred to CCI, addressing the problem of long waitlists.  The app also provides monitoring of physical and mental health risks, linked to a dashboard that is monitored by the CCI team.  Prompts for consumers to seek support are built into the app and the CCI team can also liaise with the referring general practitioner if physical or mental health risks are identified. 

GroundED is currently in pilot phase, initially available only to clients living in Western Australia who are referred to CCI by a medical practitioner.  The referral form can be located at https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Treatment/Referrals

National Strategy Standards and Actions

Initial Response

Standard 1: Mental health professionals at key entry or referral points can conduct an initial eating disorder assessment including psychiatric risk, make a preliminary diagnosis, provide psychoeducation, refer the person to the appropriate level of treatment and supports, and continue to engage the person and family/supports throughout any waiting time for treatment.

Action 1.2: Mental health services to ensure staff are trained to provide an initial response according to their scope of practice and clinical role.

Standard 4: Mental health and health professionals at key entry or referral points have access to clinical and training resources to support their role in initial response.

Action 4.1: Eating disorder service development organisations to continue to develop and disseminate online/face-to-face training, validated assessment tools, and psychoeducation resources to support health and mental health professionals in assessment, preliminary diagnosis, and in engaging the person and family/supports. 

Treatment

Standard 1: People can access timely treatment and at the level of intensity they need, as close to home as possible (including digital options) and move between levels of treatment intensity in a seamless and supported way. 

Action 1.6: Researchers, in conjunction with service providers and people with lived experience, to conduct further research into treatment interventions including brief and/or digital interventions, as well as other innovative solutions to meet needs.

Treatment (community-based)

Standard 2: Treatment services routinely offer or refer to early and brief community interventions for people with binge-eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, OSFED (excluding atypical anorexia nervosa), UFED, and subthreshold eating disorders where clinically indicated.

Action 2.1: Treatment providers to be trained and supported to provide early and/or brief interventions for people with binge-eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, OSFED (excluding atypical anorexia nervosa), UFED, and sub-threshold eating disorders where clinically indicated. 

Action 2.2: Services providing eating disorder treatment to ensure staff have capacity to offer, or refer to, early and brief interventions (online or face-to-face) such as single session interventions, guided self-help or other brief manualised interventions where clinically indicated.