CEO Reflections on 2021-22

This CEO reflection is part of EDV’s 2021-22 Annual Report. You can view the 2021-22 Annual Report online here.

2021-22 has seen further strong growth in both demand and service delivery as we continued to navigate the realities of COVID-19.

We operated under lockdown conditions for 89 days from July 16th to October 21st, with a break of just over a week at the end of July/beginning of August. After the very long lockdown of late 2020, EDV staff were both more able to adapt to the conditions and simultaneously felt deep fatigue at the continuing balance of managing complex personal circumstances as well as work.

For this reason, we are extraordinarily proud that not only were we able to maintain services but we continued to innovate and reach out to more of our community with new services.

Over the last 12 months we have continued to enhance our core services and added new services.

Of particular note, our EDV Hub service has been significantly enhanced with the employment of a paid Hub Coordinator as well as system changes improving caller responsiveness and quality of information provided. Our staff team has continued to grow and deliver the full suite of support services we developed over COVID-19. Our volunteer program has continued to support both the Hub and our Stories of Recovery program, in both online format in 2021 and moving back into the in person space in 2022. We remain extremely grateful to all our volunteers for persisting so cheerfully through all the changes!

New programs to come online have included a world-first (we think!) program for those with severe and enduring eating disorders focusing on quality of life and goal setting. 25 participants went through the program this financial year with positive changes for participants demonstrated in the early data.

EDV was also successful in receiving a grant from the Telematics Trust to develop an online learning platform for consumers and carers to learn skills and knowledge in a range of topics useful to the recovery journey.

We also received a grant from Goldman Sachs courtesy of the Johnson family to expand our delivery of the Collaborative Carer Skills Workshops for families/carers/supports.

We received funding this year from the InsideOut Institute Million Minds research grant to host a post-doctoral research associate to create a Victorian research translation hub, supporting EDV and CEED to evaluate key programs.

We continue to forge a range of collaborative partnerships with a range of key organisations. The Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders and EDV have continued to work closely together, especially around the Ministerial Roundtable on eating disorders held in December last year and in the lead-up to the 2022-23 state budget. The Budget announcement in May of funding to develop a new Victorian Eating Disorders Strategy was welcomed and we look forward to supporting the Victorian government to develop this key platform for improving the journey for our Eating Disorders affected community.

Belinda

Belinda Caldwell
EDV CEO

Belinda’s professional experience can be best summed up by a passionate commitment to improving health outcomes, either through prevention programs or primary care, and more recently eating disorders treatment.

Prior to joining EDV, Belinda was working at the Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders as a Carer Consultant and Project Manager, developing new strategies and resources for effecting greater and more effective carer inclusion in ED treatment models. Alongside that Belinda did part-time consulting in a range of primary care, not for profit and other settings. And before that, Belinda’s role as CEO of Australian Practice Nurses Association was driven by the goal of improving health outcomes for primary care consumers through access to a better care from a highly qualified nurse in general practice medical centres.

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