Flinders University’s Blackbird Initiative exists to conduct high-level research and develop effective, evidence-based interventions to improve the lives of people affected by eating disorders
The prevalence of eating disorders in youth doubled in the five years before the onset of the COVID pandemic, affecting one in six females and one in 40 males. The prevalence increased again significantly over COVID. The evidence suggests that while the mental health of youth was impacted adversely across the board over this time, eating disorders increased more than depression or anxiety. Since the end of lockdowns, there has been a further increase in the prevalence of eating disorders in adolescents, both males and females. Despite the increasing and high prevalence of a disorder with one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness, only one in four youth receive treatment for an eating disorder.
In 2024 The Lancet Psychiatry Commission called for a transformation in mental health implementation research in real-world settings to overcome barriers to scaling. In addition, among the variety of mental health disorders, eating disorders are uniquely associated with ambivalence and denial, which creates further barriers to engagement in interventions.
Identifying critical issues that are causing eating disorders
This first step of the current project will identify, with a variety of stakeholders, the critical issues that are causing eating disorders to develop in young people. We are seeking to identify transdiagnostic targets, the risk factors that cause an eating disorder, to provide an engaging pathway that sidesteps denial and maximizes use of an intervention. Based on consensus across people with lived experience, caregivers, clinicians and researchers, we will nominate ten early intervention transdiagnostic targets.
The second step of the project is to develop ten different interventions that have previously shown an ability to reduce these risk factors, utilising evidence-based principles that make interventions in mental health more effective e.g., utilising the power of cognitive dissonance by getting the young person to argue for change, personalising interventions.
Technology-delivered interventions in mental health
Another important engagement strategy is packaging the interventions in an app that takes no more than 30 minutes to complete. Young people consistently say that in the field of technology-delivered interventions in mental health, they prefer using mobile versions like apps for smartphones. Development of all the interventions will be conducted in co-design with young people with lived experience of disordered eating.
The third step of the research is testing these brief interventions and identifying those that have the most promising outcomes for decreasing disordered eating in young people. Which interventions work best for who will be a focus of the ongoing research. This will enable us to empower young people, via use of an assessment guide, to curate the selection of interventions that best works for them. This process assessment guide will be made available, along with the apps, as a free resource for use in open, unguided settings.
Effects of the pandemic will continue to be experienced by youth
This work will close a knowledge gap between the increasing prevalence of eating disorders in youth and broad access to effective and engaging interventions. This work can result in young people experiencing better health outcomes sooner. This is critical in a world where sustained effects of the pandemic will continue to be experienced by youth via a higher cost of living, heightened perceived vulnerability to disasters outside of one’s control, erosion of social relationships, and interrupted developmental milestones.
Professor Tracey Wade
Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor Tracey Wade has worked as a clinician and researcher in eating disorders for over 30 years. She has led improvements in mental health through development and application of new interventions and informing policy to ensure evidence-based service provision.
Tracey is the director of the Blackbird Initiative and the Flinders University Services for Eating Disorders (FUSED). She has cowritten 3 books on cognitive behaviour therapy for eating disorders and perfectionism and has over 300 publications in peer reviewed journals. Her contribution to the field of mental health has been recognised widely.
In 2015 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In 2016 she was made an Inaugural Honorary Fellow of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (CBT). In 2019 she was appointed Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and was a recipient of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2020 she was the recipient of the Academy of Eating Disorders Outstanding Clinician Award. In 2021 she was given the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation Len Frankham award for outstanding achievement in children’s education and wellbeing research, and the Healthy Development Adelaide Award for achieving excellence in research contributing to healthy development. In 2023 she was the recipient of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy Distinguished Career Award. In 2024 she is a Global Ambassador for CBT for the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies.
Over 2024 to 2028 her research work is supported by a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant 2025665. The project, Revolutionising early intervention outcomes for youth with emerging eating disorders, seeks to tackle the gap between the rising prevalence of disordered eating and eating disorders in youth aged 14 to 25 years and timely, scalable and engaging interventions.
