Child & Youth Forum: Collaborating for Comprehensive Care for Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorders (ARFID) and Paediatric Feeding Disorders (PFD)

About this event

Delivered over one full day at the State Library of Victoria
Friday May 19, 2023, 9.30am – 4pm
 
Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and Paediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD) are recently defined conditions. ARFID and PFD are characterised by eating difficulties which can result in malnutrition and growth delay, acute medical problems, psychological distress and reduced wellbeing for the young person, as well as having significant impact on the broader family system. The multiple factors involved in the development and maintenance of PFD and ARFID are becoming clearer. These include: medical conditions or interventions that result in delays in child eating behaviour; neurobiological diversity of sensory experience of eating; altered appetite and aversive experiences and associated anxiety leading to a restriction in variety and quantity of food intake.

Awareness of ARFID and PFD and the significant impact of these eating disorders is limited among health professionals. As a result coordinated and evidence-informed service responses and supports for children, young people and their families are only beginning to emerge. Families frequently need to advocate strongly for both understanding and access to care and support.

Service responses and supports to meet the needs of children and adolescents with both ARFID and PFD and their families is emerging as an issue of importance in the last few years.

This forum seeks to address this issue through the following aims:

• Connect & inform health professionals, public health services & those impacted by ARFID and PFD.
• Raise community & public health service awareness of the impact of ARFID and PFD.
• Eexpand knowledge of public health services of the service needs of those experiencing ARFID and PFD.
• Foster public health service interconnection
• Identify public health service gaps and future directions for public health service development, research priorities & capability building.
• Provide recommendations to Department of Health & the public health sector based on findings

Target Audience: The forum will be of high interest to CYMHS Service Leaders and clinicians, carers / support people, child and adolescent psychiatrists, paediatricians, paediatric feeding teams (speech pathologists, OTs, dietitians psychologists) and clinicians working with neurodiverse children, adolescents and their supports.

For more information see flyer here.