Academy for Eating Disorders Releases Recommendations for Residential/Inpatient Eating Disorder Programs for Higher Care Standards
New recommendations provide clear standards for performance review
DEERFIELD, IL, February 27, 2013—The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) released Clinical Practice Recommendations for Residential and Inpatient Eating Disorder Programs in conjunction with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, February 24 - March 2, 2013.
Today, eating disorders affect one in 20 young women in the U.S. alone. Until now, patients, families, providers and insurers in the U.S. lacked a clear set of disease-specific standards they could use to examine residential/inpatient program description and performance. These first-of-their-kind recommendations guide the development of disease-specific accreditation standards that can be used when reviewing the performance of residential and inpatient programs. The AED anticipates the standards will be used or adapted to meet the local needs in other countries where residential and inpatient standards are currently lacking.
The Recommendations, developed through a collaboration of the AED, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (IAEDP), were established to:
• Safeguard patients and families seeking residential or
inpatient eating disorder treatment.
• Facilitate program review and improve the quality of care
offered by residential and inpatient treatment programs.
• Provide a quality of care benchmark for third-party payers
and government officials when collaborating with service providers in
developing comprehensive models of care and reimbursement.
Results from a recent NEDA consumer survey of more than 2,000
individuals -- who are either themselves suffering or are a family
member of someone suffering from an eating disorder -- indicated that
all preferred help by a multidisciplinary team and rated residential
(and outpatient) settings highest in terms of usefulness.
Clinician’s years of experience, credentials and cost were all
cited as important factors for patients and families when making
treatment decisions.
The task force gathered input from patients, family members, service
providers, government officials, and insurers and safeguarded that
recommendations were guided by empirical data and consensus from the
American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines for Eating
Disorders, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Guidelines for Eating Disorders, Australian and New Zealand Clinical
Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa, and American
Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Identifying and Treating
Eating Disorders. Letters of endorsement of the recommendations have
already arrived from USA-Based professional eating disorder
organizations, as well as organization across the globe including from
BEAT, the AED Hispano Latino American Chapter, the International
Association of Eating Disorders Professionals and the Italian Society of
Eating Behavior Psychopathology.
Letters of endorsement of the recommendations have already come from organizations around the world including BEAT (UK), the AED Hispano Latino American Chapter, the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals and the Italian Society of Eating Behavior Psychopathology. “This is an important advancement for our field and our families. It is our hope that credentialing may now help to better ensure that patients will receive the quality care they truly deserve. We are grateful for this cooperative effort,” said Lynn Grefe, President and CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).
The new recommendations apply to programs that serve patients 24 hours per day, seven days per week, under the supervision of licensed healthcare professionals who has access to a licensed physician. Patients served in these facilities have been diagnosed with eating disorders according to the current DSM or ICD-10 criteria, including Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified. They require an intensity of service delivery beyond that of ambulatory or partial hospitalization level of care.
CARF International, an independent, nonprofit accreditor of many health and human services across the globe, has also integrated the AED Clinical Practice Recommendations into its 2013 disease-specific accreditation guidelines for residential and inpatient eating disorders program (www.carf.org). Nikki Migas, Managing Director of CARF International said, “Use of the recommendations and standards, and subsequent accreditation, will clearly help to support the CARF International mission of ‘enhancing the lives of persons served’. “
“These actions help us move one step closer to safeguarding patients with eating disorders and their families who seek programs providing this level of care,” said Mary Tantillo, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAED, chair of the AED Task Force that developed the recommendations.
“Release of the Clinical Practice Recommendations for Residential/Inpatient Eating Disorder Programs is a wonderful way to herald National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and promote the provision of safe, evidence-based residential/inpatient treatment to patients and families,” said Dasha Nicholls, AED President.
# # #
See the AED website page (www.aedweb.org) for more information on AED, or http://bit.ly/ZERtER for the list of AED Residential/Inpatient Task Force members and consultants.
The Academy for Eating Disorders is a global and trans-disciplinary professional organization with more than 1,500 members from 47 countries worldwide. AED provides educational resources and platforms for professional dialogue, training, and collaboration through its publications, including the International Journal of Eating Disorders, annual International Conference on Eating Disorders, clinical teaching days and other programs. Visit www.aedweb.org for more information.
For information on Residential/Inpatient Eating Disorder Programs accreditation by CARF International, contact a Behavioral Health resource specialist at www.carf.org/contact-us or +1-888-281-6531.