This is an OPEN Webinar, FREE for Members and Non-Members.

Presenters: Polly Schaverien (Senior Clinical Psychologist), Shannon Calvert (Lived Experience Lead), Fionnuala Dunne (Psychiatrist), Jacinta Coleman (General Paediatrician & Adolescent Physician) & Karen Spielman (General Practitioner) 
Chair: Ranjani Utpala (Clinical Psychologist)

Eating disorder presentations in the community are often medically complex, requiring clinicians to balance risk management, engagement, autonomy, and collaborative care. This live 90-minute Ask an Expert panel brings together multidisciplinary perspectives to explore some of the most challenging aspects of medical management across the continuum of care.

Attendees will hear from a panel including a GP, Paediatrician, Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Lived Experience Consultant, with representation from multiple states across Australia and from New Zealand to reflect diverse service systems and approaches to care.

Using attendee pre-submitted questions to guide discussion, the panel will explore topics including:
- Managing common physiological concerns in the community
- Responding when clients avoid medical review or delay investigations
- Building and maintaining effective multidisciplinary care teams
- Communicating concerns and coordinating care across disciplines
- Knowing when to increase level of care, including hospital, day program, and residential treatment
- Navigating involuntary treatment decisions and managing situations where admission does not occur following ED presentation 

Polly Schaverien is a clinical psychologist working in private practice in Wellington, New Zealand. Polly worked at the Central Region Eating Disorder Service (CREDS), before opening her own clinical psychology practice in 2017. She is now a Senior Clinical Psychologist, working for specialist private eating disorder practice, Nurture Psychology.  Alongside her clinical role, Polly is working toward a PhD through the University of Auckland. Her focus is on bridging the treatment-access gap by developing an early intervention for anorexia nervosa, that can be delivered by GPs, nurses and other clinicians in primary care services. Polly is also Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Mental Health Foundation.

Shannon Calvert is the Lived Experience Lead at the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC), where she supports the ethical and meaningful integration of lived experience across eating disorder policy, workforce development, and system reform. She brings extensive lived experience of a longstanding eating disorder shaped by the intersections of mental health, neurodivergence, and complex health challenges. Shannon works with clinicians, services, and policymakers to strengthen trauma-informed, rights-based approaches to care, with a focus on supporting responses to complex presentations and improving outcomes for individuals and their loved ones.

Fionnuala Dunne received her medical degree at Trinity College in Dublin. She completed her registrar training in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England and undertook a senior registrar position in Melbourne in 1998. She returned to Newcastle and became a consultant in adult psychiatry in 2000 and, over the next five years, developed an early intervention service for psychosis. Dr Dunne came to the Sunshine Coast in 2006 and was a consultant psychiatrist at both Gympie and Nambour hospitals. Dr Dunne has worked in the field of eating disorders across both public and private mental health settings. She currently practises at Cooinda Clinic, Buderim Private Hospital on the Sunshine Coast, providing care in private practice and the inpatient eating disorders program. Since May 2023, she has also been the Medical Director of the Wandi Nerida Residential Eating Disorders Program in Queensland.

Jacinta Coleman is a General Paediatrician and Adolescent Physician and has additional training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Jacinta has worked as Head of Adolescent Medicine at Monash Children’s Hospital, for nearly 30 years. She has extensive experience working with a broad range of health issues for adolescent patients including those young people with eating disorders. Jacinta has grown a committed team of multi-disciplinary professionals who pride themselves on delivering compassionate, supportive care to all patients and to their families, often during the most challenging and distressing time in a family’s life cycle.


Karen Spielman is a GP, who has worked for nearly 30 years and practices person-centred psychologically-informed medicine. She works part time in a normal general practice as well as a specialist Eating Disorder practice. She is interested in chronic complex medical conditions including eating disorders and has expertise in mental health, youth health and trauma-informed care. She provides peer supervision to GPs through the Australian Society for Psychological Medicine and is GP Consultant and Research Associate at InsideOut Institute.