Five-years of family based treatment for anorexia nervosa

The Eating Disorder Service at the Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW) in Sydney, providest comprehensive inpatient and outpatient treatment for children and adolescents with eating disorders. In 2003 the Maudsley Model of family based treatment for anorexia nervosa was introduced to support outpatient care. This has resulted in positive changes in the dynamics of the eating disorder team, a change in the philosophies that underpin the program and the experience of families that consult the service. There has also been a significant decrease in readmission rates. Our experience with the model has resulted in requests to provide training to other clinicians around Australia and a number of ongoing consultative relationships have followed. Implementation of the Maudsley model at CHW is described, followed by an overview of the theory and a summary of the key changes and challenges since moving in this new direction in 2003.