Allied Health Metabolic Clinic opens in Launceston

Dr John Mercer with Clinical Lead René du Plessis, Psychologists Patricia Aitken and Ros Herriman, and Dietitian Sharon King.

A new Allied Health Metabolic Clinic is providing psychological and dietic support to patients before and after surgery, as part of a new initiative based on and around research.

In Tasmania, about a third of the adult population is believed to be obese. However, the health issue often overlaps physiological, psychological and dietetic domains.

As a result, health professionals are starting to rethink their approach to obesity by focusing more on the person and their lived experience.

A study led by Chronic Condition Psychologist Dr John Mercer is a great example of translational research supported by the Clifford Craig Foundation that is now directly benefiting patients.

First commenced in 2018 and aimed at improving bariatric surgery outcomes, this study has resulted in publications and provided important insights into the population of people living with weight issues in Tasmania.

This includes the factors that may aid or hinder a positive surgery outcome – such as the social, psychological, and systematic factors.

Now, a new Allied Health Metabolic Clinic has been established in Launceston based on the results of this research, providing psychology and dietetic support to both endocrinology and surgery intervention pathways. 

Opened earlier this year, alongside Dr Mercer the clinic consists of two psychologists and two dieticians and represents an Australian-first multidisciplinary model of care.

As Dr Mercer explained, the Clinic is aimed at ensuring patients are informed and prepared before surgery, so they can get the best possible outcome.

“We wanted to understand what the lived experience of our patients was, and then design a service based around that,” Dr Mercer explained.

“People’s relationship with food is not quantified - it’s not used to work out who is going to be a good candidate for surgery and who is not going to do so well.

“It’s more about what people need as individuals and making sure patients are informed about their treatment options.”

Dr Mercer said he would like to see this integrated approach of dieticians working side-by-side with psychologists become a template for how Tasmania thinks about working with metabolic populations.

“This is how I like to explain it:

“Sometimes I think to myself: ‘I want a chocolate cookie’.

“But then I think: ‘no I shouldn’t. But I really want it. But I shouldn’t because I will put on weight’.

“But then I will have the cookie anyway.

“So, all that internal monologue is the psychology part. The nutritional aspect of the cookie – that’s the dietetic part. So, for the individual, that stuff is never separate. So why separate it in care?”

The work of the clinic is now informing ongoing research.