Grant: Op. Grant: NWHRI: Innovation Fund - Healthcare implementation research

Eating disorders have their onset in the teenage years and affect primarily women and girls. Access to care has been a major concern that was only worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current state of affairs includes long waiting lists for youth with eating disorders across the country. Treatments that are more efficient with greater reach are urgently needed to reduce wait times, especially given recent evidence indicating that being on a waiting list increases mortality. Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is the gold standard treatment for youth with eating disorders. Recent research has indicated that Guided Self Help FBT (GSH FBT) shows similar outcomes and is much more efficient compared to FBT, however it is not currently available in Canada. Our objectives are to study the implementation of GSH FBT across Canada. In order to implement this new model of care, we will use implementation teams at each site along with GSH FBT provider training and consultation. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to study whether our implementation effort was effective. We will use fidelity assessment of GSH FBT to measure implementation success. We will examine wait times before and after our implementation approach. We will also examine pre- and post- quantitative measures to examine psychological symptoms. And we will complete qualitative interviews with patients/families and GSH FBT providers/implementation teams to examine experiences with GSH FBT. Through this research we will learn valuable information on how to best implement this novel and efficient treatment across Canada in a variety of healthcare settings.