About Us
The FREEDcan initiative began in 2020. Guided by the goal of bringing early stage eating disorder services to community settings, the FREEDcan initiative aimed to:
With generous support from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, our team conducted an environmental scan to explore early intervention models that might address these aims. Through this process, we learned about the FREED model from the UK: a novel service-within-service, evidence-based early intervention model being implemented in eating disorder programs across England. We further learned that the FREED model had scaled to other countries, such as Australia, where the model has been implemented in primary care mental health clinics. This provided further proof that the model might be a good fit for us in Canada.
Leaning on the expertise of our international partners, we began co-adapting the FREED model for primary care integrated settings in Canada. The work of co-adapting the FREED model subsequently brought together the FREEDcan core team.
The FREEDcan core team, housed in the Eating Disorder Research Lab at the CHEO Research Institute, in Ottawa, Canada, is a multidisciplinary group of implementation science research staff who bring together research, clinical and lived/living expertise to support the development, implementation, evaluation, and ongoing iteration of the FREEDcan model. The FREEDcan core team is supported by a 17-person key partner advisory group, who meet regularly to help with the co-adaptation; four (4) system partners; an implementation science research team; and an active Youth Advisory. Together, these advisors, partners, researchers, and key partners help shape the work of FREEDcan.
The COVID-19 pandemic drew further attention to the significant need for eating disorder care. Given that youth are “knocking on all doors”, many sectors are seeking ways to support the young people with disordered eating or eating disorders accessing their services. FREEDcan wants to make eating disorders “everyone’s business.” We do this by bringing together a broad range of youth-serving sectors includingmental health and addiction services, integrated youth services, campus health, family health teams, and primary care. Role-aligned training will enable staff and providers to be, at minimum, “eating disorder informed.” These integrated systems of care will help better meet the needs of young people with eating concerns.
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