Grant: Team Grant : Strengt. the Health Workforce for Sys. Transf.: Pediatric Workforce

The clinicians who help children and youth with eating disorders are in crisis. There are not enough of them to support all who need treatment, and there is poor access to training in effective treatments. These eating disorders specialists are burned out and some are considering leaving the profession. Our team will evaluate a Provincial Training Hub for pediatric eating disorders, starting in BC and Yukon, with the goal of providing access to quality training and ongoing support to this health workforce and, in parallel, to families. We hope the Training Hub activities will reduce burnout and improve well-being in clinicians, and so enhance retention and capacity for treating children and youth with eating disorders. We will also expand a group/family-based care model for pediatric eating disorders, which is expected to build opportunities for team-based care and alleviate moral distress in clinicians. We will find out about the issues that make it easier or more difficult for groups, based on location, culture, identity, among other factors, to do their work. We will collaborate with the interested parties to co-design ways to explore these issues, so that everyone is respected and represented. Our team is ideally placed for this study. Our members come from across Canada (5 provinces, 1 territory) and are researchers, health workers, system leaders, and people with lived experience of eating disorders. We have extensive experience in the approaches we will use and relationships with other provincial and national projects. Our project will provide key information for national workforce development and training strategies.