National and International Attention for a Revolutionary Approach

A team of researchers and clinical staff at St. Paul’s Hospital have earned some national and international attention for a revolutionary approach to treatment for patients with eating disorders. They developed a new BC clinical practice guideline and a tool, titled the Short Treatment Allocation Tool for Eating Disorders (STATED). Together, these two tools provide a new way of describing patients with eating disorders and allocating treatment for them in a manner that is simple, patient-centred and cost-effective.

The BC clinical practice guidelines and STATED use three variables for allocating patients to treatment: medical acuity (eg. How urgently does the patient require medical care), life interference (eg. How much of the patient’s life is impacted by the eating disorder), and readiness and motivation for change. They integrate the growing evidence that poor motivation is associated with eating disorders treatment non-completion, poor outcome, and relapse.