Post-Conference Workshops: Sunday 25 August 2024
Registration rates for post-conference workshops can be found here. During the registration process you will have the opportunity to select the workshop/s you wish to attend.
You will have the opportunity to select these workshops, during the registration process.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (CBT-AR)
​Presenter: Jennifer Thomas
Time: 9.00am - 4.00pm NZST (1-Day Training)
Room: Jade 1
​Workshop Overview: Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) was recently added to the Feeding and Eating Disorders section of DSM-5 to describe children, adolescents, and adults who cannot meet their nutritional needs, typically due sensory sensitivity, fear of aversive consequences, and/or apparent lack of interest in eating or food. Research on the efficacy of novel treatments is ongoing. One such novel treatment—cognitive-behavioral therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR)—has shown evidence of preliminary efficacy in three open trials and is currently being investigated in two randomized controlled trials funded by the United States National Institute of Mental Health.  The model has also been effectively delivered in the private practice context in Australia with children, adolescents, and adults.

This full-day training will cover the assessment of ARFID and determining patient appropriateness of CBT-AR, as well as the implementation of all four stages of this flexible, modular treatment, for individuals with ARFID ages 10 and up. Material will be drawn from our team’s book Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: Children, Adolescents, and Adults (Cambridge University Press, 2019), cases our team has seen in our clinical practice, and our ongoing research studies on the neurobiology, treatment, and longitudinal course of ARFID. This interactive presentation will include a brief description of the rationale for and goals of CBT-AR; detailed case examples drawn from a heterogeneous group of patients who have benefitted from CBT-R; critical choice points for tailoring CBT-AR to the presenting patient; and multiple role-play demonstrations. We welcome audience members to come with questions about specific cases from their own clinical practice, and will leave ample time for discussion at the workshop’s conclusion. 
Dr. Jennifer Thomas is the Co-director of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Thomas’s research focuses on avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder and other atypical eating disorders, as described in her four books — most recently Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: Children, Adolescents, and Adults; and The Picky Eater’s Recovery Book: Overcoming Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. She is principal investigator on several studies investigating the neurobiology and treatment of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and private foundations. 

Practical Upskilling for GPs - growing our capacity for ED management
Presenter: Susan Barnett, Karen Spielman & Annemarie Tangney
Time: 9.00am - 4.00pm NZST (1-Day Training)
Room: Jade 3
Please be advised, this workshop has been submitted to RNZCGP for accreditation, and has been approved by the RACGP, ACRRM and the GPMHSC in Australia for accreditation. By attending this workshop, GP participants will be allocated 6.5 CPD hours.

​Workshop Overview: This day aims to provide practical resources, skills and guidance for all GPs who are providing care for patients with eating disorders.   The day will cover those difficult scenarios that GPs face on a regular basis when providing care for patients with eating disorders.  We expect that participants will leave the day with increased knowledge and also the confidence that their whole person General Practice care is a perfect fit for the longitudinal care of all of our patients who have suffered eating disorders.

Topics:
  • Screening for Eating Disorders, History taking and identifying patterns to look for
  • Motivational interviewing with ED patients and an introduction Specialist Supportive Clinical Management, a psychotherapeutic model of care
  • Navigating medical management and the hospital system
  • InsideOut GP tool kit, practical strategies

Learning Objectives:
At end of this session GPs will be able to:
  1. Discuss the new resources available to GPs to ensure evidence-based care is provided to all patients suffering from eating disorders.
  2. Recognise patterns in behaviour that warrant further assessment for possible underlying eating disorders in a general practice context.
  3. Apply specialised skills to provide care to a patient who is unable to be admitted to hospital even though they fit admission criteria for an eating disorder.
Susan Barnett is a GP Psychotherapist and Medical Educator. She was awarded FRACGP 2003, FPS 2014 and ANZAED credentialling and FASPM in 2022. In 2021 she set up in solo practice to focus purely on providing psychological care. She provides care for many patients and their families suffering from eating disorders and often as part of a multidisciplinary team. She is trained in CBTe, FBT, EMDR, ACT and CFT. Susan is a medical educator for EVGPT (Victorian GP training consortium), Black Dog Institue and Australian Society of Psychological Medicine (ASPM). She is currently the Education Chair for ASPM and Vice President. She is on the GP advisory group for the Inside out Gp clinical decision tool kit. 
Karen Spielman practices person-centred psychologically-informed medicine and works part time in general practice alongside this specialist practice. She is interested in chronic complex medical conditions including eating disorders and has expertise in mental health, youth health and trauma-informed care. Above all she values collaborating with like-minded psychologists and other health practitioners as she understands that the more the team communicates and is on the same page, the better the care and outcome is for the patient/consumer.
AnneMarie Tangney worked as a GP for 27 years in the UK and Dunedin, and then moved to Auckland in January 2022 to take up the position of GP in the Tupu Ora community adult team. AnneMarie enjoys being part of a great multi-disciplinary team at Tupu Ora and its supportive work environment. Her job involves medical assessment of new clients entering the adult service as well as the medical monitoring for clients who are at highest risk of medical complications from their eating disorder.