Overview

River Centre Clinic follows a treatment philosophy designed to provide male and female eating disorder sufferers of all ages an affordable treatment alternative to inpatient care. We use a number of cost-effective innovations to reduce the cost of treatment without compromising our high quality of patient care. We follow a well-established therapy model for treating eating disorders that integrates individual, group, and family therapy. This model is linked to evidence-based treatment principles and is facilitated by internally developed software technology. Each patient receives an individualized treatment plan that is developed and implemented by an interdisciplinary team of highly qualified staff members. Our treatment philosophy extends beyond the confines of the River Centre Clinic campus through our community involvement, participation in academic settings, and research contributions to the eating disorders field.

Cost-Effective Treatment

A key barrier to the effective treatment of eating disorders is affordability, so River Centre Clinic has developed several cost-effective innovations to reduce treatment costs. We have demonstrated that our partial hospitalization and residential levels of care provide therapeutic services similar to inpatient programs at a fraction of the cost, while providing a sufficiently high level of intensity to be clinically effective for the vast majority of eating disorder patients. For example, our partial hospitalization level of care provides 3 months of highly specialized and individualized treatment for about the same overall costs as 10 to 14 days of inpatient treatment. Our residential level of care also provides significant cost savings compared to inpatient treatment.

Please visit Treatment Costs to see:
• Daily rates of our eating disorder treatment programs.
• Cost comparison of partial hospitalization vs. inpatient hospitalization.
• Innovations we have developed to keep our treatment costs low.

Treatment Model

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Model. River Centre Clinic uses a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) model specifically designed for treating eating disorders that integrates group and family therapy, applied in an individualized manner for each patient. This model helps patients to identify negative thought patterns and negative core beliefs that interfere with normal functioning, and to learn how to modify their thought patterns and behavior to bring about positive results. It also strongly emphasizes family therapy, especially for adolescents, because parents have the potential to provide powerful directives in support of therapeutic goals. In addition, the interaction between the patient's thinking, feeling, and behavior and family members is usually so salient that it compels family involvement. This approach to eating disorder treatment has been the subject of numerous scientific publications and presentations over the past 25 years, and many of these principles are described in the Handbook for Treatments for Eating Disorders, edited by D.M. Garner and P.E. Garfinkel.

Evidence-Based Treatment Principles. A cornerstone of the CBT model used at River Centre Clinic is its linkage to evidence-based treatment principles. These principles influence how treatment is applied in clinical practice based on what research has demonstrated to be effective.

Individualized Treatment Plans. Since each patient's eating disorder is unique, an individualized treatment plan is developed and customized for each patient. This plan is based on a comprehensive assessment and grounded in evidence-based treatment protocols and principles. This plan is continually revised, based on changes that occur during treatment, and incorporates discharge planning. It also encourages the active participation of patients as well as family members who also need individualized services, within the confines of treatment protocols.

Interdisciplinary Care. Eating disorders are complex health problems and require a highly skilled interdisciplinary team to optimally assess, treat, and manage them. River Centre Clinic staff members include an experienced psychiatrist, family practice physicians, a registered nurse, psychologists, licensed independent social workers, a dietary technician, Master’s level therapists, residential staff, mental health workers, and a teacher to provide coordination with schools as well as tutoring. Consultants in the community include other areas of medicine such as cardiology, endocrinology, and internal medicine.

Standardized Measures. River Centre Clinic uses standardized measures to collect patient data and measures of change that are well established in the eating disorder field. Data provided by these standardized measures can serve as benchmarks for evaluating therapeutic outcomes as well as enabling continual improvements in treatment effectiveness.

Proprietary Software Technology. Following recommendations within the research community for practice-based evaluations, River Centre Clinic has developed software tools that graphically generate measures of clinical change so that clinicians and patients can visually evaluate progress. Patient evaluations also help clinicians to identify effective treatment components and areas where the treatment process can be continuously improved.

Contributions

River Centre Clinic makes contributions beyond the confines of our campus through our involvement in research, academic, and community settings.

Practice Research Network Infrastructure. River Centre Clinic is developing a practice research network infrastructure that links with other centers and uses common data-collection procedures. The research network's ultimate goal is to create a large multi-center database that can more accurately predict outcomes at the individual case level.

Community Involvement. River Centre Clinic provides education and support groups to enhance public understanding of eating disorders within the local community. We sponsor the Eating Disorders Support Network, a free, community-based support group for parents, friends, and loved ones of those who have eating disorders. We also provide community lectures on eating disorders to schools, high school and university athletic teams, and local public health agencies to increase public awareness of eating disorders. Our special relationship with a local school system provides services for children and adolescents who require more intensive and specialized services than can be provided in the school setting. This school program also offers training workshops for teachers, guidance counselors, and administrative staff members on more effective interventions for those suffering from emotional problems in the school setting.

Academic Leadership. Senior staff members of River Centre Clinic make contributions through conducting research and publishing extensively in academic literature. Eating disorder topics covered include diagnosis, cultural contributing factors, individual risk factors, assessment methods, treatment methods, treatment effectiveness and the biology of weight regulation, and a major revision of the most widely used self-report measure of psychological features relevant to people with eating disorders. Senior staff members have also been asked to give lectures and workshops in the United States and Europe on clinical methods and research pertaining to understanding and treating eating disorders.