Child Mental Health Community of Practice session 4: Eating disorders

The child mental health community of practice (CoP) is part of the Victorian Public Healthcare Award-winning ‘connecting mental health paediatric specialists and community services (COMPASS)' project. It is a multidisciplinary CoP for GPs, practice nurses, psychologists, paediatricians, mental health clinicians, social workers and counsellors.

The CoP improves the capacity of clinicians assessing and managing mental health problems in children and adolescents. Over 7 sessions, facilitated by local GP Dr Sahar Iqbal, participants will examine case studies presented by child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Chidambaram Prakash from the Royal Children’s Hospital. Each monthly session will focus on a topic of interest. Sessions will be held online using Zoom on Tuesday evenings, from 6:30pm to 8pm. 

The topic for session 4 is eating disorders. People with eating disorders have high rates of comorbid mental health disorders. This session will focus on how to assess and diagnose the various types of eating disorders, and possible treatments. 

This is the fourth time this successful CoP has been run. This series will include all new case studies.

1.5 EA RACGP continuing professional development (CPD) hours are available for attending GPs.  

Don't miss the other sessions in the series:

Session 5: Aug 27, 2024 6:30 PM – Assessment and management of mental health disorders in neurodiverse children and young people 

Session 6: Sep 17, 2024 6:30 PM – Gender diversity

Session 7: Oct 29, 2024 6:30 PM – PTSD/Complex PTSD

For any queries, please contact education@nwmphn.org.au

Speakers

Dr Chidambaram Prakash is a senior consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the RCH. He has over 20 years’ experience. 

Prakash has worked in, and managed, general and specialist clinics within child psychiatry in metropolitan and regional public mental health services.  

Practising as a GP at Goonawarra Medical Centre for the past 10 years, Dr Sahar Iqbal's areas of interest are child and adolescent mental health and chronic disease management.

Guest Speakers

Dr Michele Yeo, Royal Children's Hospital

Michele is a paediatrician and physician in adolescent medicine. She has a longstanding interest in eating disorders and is the medical lead for the RCH ED Service. She enjoys working with in a multidisciplinary team and  opportunities. Her other interests include chronic illness and health risk behaviours.

Matt Hogbin, Royal Children's Hospital

Matt Hogbin is a paediatric dietitian working within the Adolescent Medicine Department and the Children's Cancer Centre at The RCH. He has worked in the area of eating disorders for the past 7 years with experience in regional community health and metropolitan inpatient care with adults and adolescents. He takes particular interest in the nutritional rehabilitation of young people beginning their recovery pathway and providing education to families on how best to support their young person experiencing an eating disorder using a food first approach. 

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Confidently assess and identify eating disorders children and adolescents. 
• Discuss the best practice management for eating disorders in children and adolescents.
• Identify appropriate referral pathways in local region to support management of children and adolescents with eating disorders