Our Waitlist Management Policy
Since COVID-19 began we have seen extensive waitlists to access psychological treatment across Australia- location and diagnosis does not discriminate. Eating disorders have been significantly impacted, with waitlists longer than ever. The tragedy of this is that eating disorders tend to worsen with time. Early access to treatment is essential and is associated with positive recovery outcomes.
BodyMatters has introduced a Waitlist Management Policy to assist with this. When possible, we offer prospective clients on our waitlist the opportunity to consult a Provisional Psychologist to commence treatment. This is offered based on the initial information we collect about a prospective client and the specific skills, experience and training of the Provisional Psychologist. It is fully customised and based on clinical suitability and therefore unfortunately not something we can offer to everybody on our waitlist.
If this is offered to you and you choose to commence treatment with one of Provisional Psychologists, you will remain on our waitlist to see a Registered or Clinical Psychologist. Your position on our waitlist will not be disadvantaged and you will be given the opportunity to choose to continue with your Provisional Psychologist or commence treatment with one of our Psychologists when you reach the top of our waitlist. We do find that many clients chose to continue with their Provisional Psychologist when their time on a waitlist has ended, simply because they have a good rapport and have made excellent progress towards recovery. The choice will be yours.
We also offer Single Session Intervention, a program run by BodyMatters for families who are currently on a Maudsley Family Based Therapy (FBT) waitlist and are waiting for treatment. The program aims to introduce parents’/carers to FBT and help them to gain resources to assist in developing skills to help support their child until they reach the top of the waitlist.