scholarly journals Life is different now – impacts of eating disorders on Carers in New Zealand: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Fletcher ◽  
Henrietta Trip ◽  
Rachel Lawson ◽  
Nicki Wilson ◽  
Jennifer Jordan

Abstract Background Eating disorders are widely recognized as serious illnesses, with complex psychological and physiological comorbidities. Affected individuals face a protracted and challenging treatment journey which, particularly for children and adolescents, requires significant input from family members as carers. This study investigated the perspectives and experiences of those caring for family members with an eating disorder diagnosis. Method Participants were carers of affected individuals with an eating disorder, and were recruited from an online survey, subsequently consenting to a semi-structured qualitative interview. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify themes. Results Most participants in the sample were parents of affected individuals. Significant and ongoing psychological and emotional impacts were identified across the sample. The diagnosis, treatment journey and overall impact of the carer role created a situation captured by the over-arching theme ‘life is different now’. Impacts profoundly influenced relationships and were felt across all aspects of life by carers, affected individuals and other family members. Heightened worry and vigilance experienced by carers continued beyond improvement or recovery. Conclusions This research highlighted challenging and often exhausting impacts felt by carers due to their pivotal role in eating disorder treatment. Inadequate support for most carers in this sample has clear implications for families as well as service and funding providers. Further research should more fully investigate carer experience with different eating disorders to explore the type of support necessary to build capacity and resilience to reduce carer burden.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siân A. McLean ◽  
Kim Hurst ◽  
Hilary Smith ◽  
Beth Shelton ◽  
Jeremy Freeman ◽  
...  

Abstract Advances are needed to ensure safe and effective treatment is available for people with eating disorders. Recently developed clinical practice and training standards for mental health professionals and dietitians represent a significant step in this direction by providing a consensus statement on eating disorder treatment as a foundation on which to build competent practice. This commentary argues that a credentialing system could promote implementation of these practice standards through formal recognition of qualifications, knowledge, training and professional activities to meet minimum standards for delivery of safe and effective eating disorder treatment. Drivers for credentialing include the imperative to provide safe and effective care, promotion of workforce development in eating disorder practice and, importantly, readily available and transparent information for referrers, consumers, and carers to identify health professionals credentialed to provide eating disorder treatment. However, a number of factors must be considered to ensure that credentialing does not restrict access to care, such as prohibitively narrow criteria to become credentialed, absence of pathways for education, training, or professional development opportunities, and lack of consultation with or endorsement by stakeholders of the credentialing criteria, application and approval processes, and ways of identifying credentialed practitioners. Further work, including development of credentialing criteria and aligned training opportunities, currently being undertaken by the Australia & New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders and the National Eating Disorders Collaboration in consultation with stakeholders in the eating disorders sector and health professions will advance understanding of the feasibility of a system of credentialing for eating disorders within Australia and New Zealand. The availability of clinical practice and training standards, supported by implementation pathways, including credentialing of eating disorders practitioners, aim to improve quality of life, reduce financial burden, and close the treatment gap.


Author(s):  
Sarah Nutter

Embodiment and the Treatment of Eating Disorders: The Body as a Resource in Recovery by Catherine Cook-Cottone provides over its 13 chapters a theoretical framework and practice recommendations for infusing embodiment in eating disorder treatment via her Embodied Approach to Treating Eating Disorders model. Part 1 of the book provides an overview of the model and Part 2 provides a framework for integrating the model into treatment, using several aspects of embodiment. Cook-Cottone includes numerous resources in the book to support counsellors in integrating this model into practice. For clinicians working with clients struggling with disordered eating or eating disorders, Cook-Cottone’s book provides an engaging addition to eating disorders treatment.


Author(s):  
Marina Gershkovich ◽  
Olivia Pascucci ◽  
Joanna Steinglass

This chapter discusses the comorbidity of eating disorders with OCD, including epidemiology, neurobiology, clinical features, and treatment. These disorders frequently cooccur. There are hints that eating disorders and OCD may share underlying neural mechanisms of illness, but these neurobiological models are preliminary. Cooccurrence of eating disorders and OCD is more common in clinical populations than community samples, highlighting the importance of assessing eating and weight history among patients with OCD. Treatment for bulimia nervosa includes psychotherapy and medication options, all with good empirical support. Treatment for anorexia nervosa emphasizes behaviorally based approaches to weight restoration treatment, with no clear evidence for medication treatments. When these illnesses occur together, treatment focused on the eating disorder yields improvement in OCD symptoms. Integrating exposure and response prevention techniques into eating disorder treatment may yield synergistic improvement in both illnesses. Future research may shed light on shared and distinct neurobiological mechanisms of these illnesses.


Author(s):  
B. Timothy Walsh ◽  
Evelyn Attia ◽  
Deborah R. Glasofer

Eating disorders are complex conditions, and adequate treatment commonly requires a team (multidisciplinary) approach. Navigating the landscape of treatment providers can be overwhelming, but it is worth taking the time to really understand who’s who in eating disorder treatment and what role they each...


Author(s):  
Carolyn Black Becker ◽  
Nicholas R. Farrell ◽  
Glenn Waller

Three relatively novel approaches to the use of exposure for eating disorders are considered. Each is relatively experimental in treating eating disorders but is well established in treating anxiety-based disorders. Interoceptive exposure can be used to treat distress over bodily cues (e.g., fullness). Imaginal exposure can be used to elevate and treat anxiety as a prelude to in vivo exposure, although it should be used only when necessary. Finally, exposure can be used to address “magical thinking,” such as thought–shape fusion. These methods show promise with eating disorder treatment but are in the early stages of conceptualization and development. Their use should be treated as experimental at present, and clinicians should be alert to their impact in clinical practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-475
Author(s):  
Hannah N. Ziobrowski ◽  
Kendrin R. Sonneville ◽  
Kamryn T. Eddy ◽  
Ross D. Crosby ◽  
Nadia Micali ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Lenza

Abstract Objective: This study aimed to identify the perceived precipitating factors for seeking eating disorder treatment in the Millennial population. The purpose of this study was to understand the Millennial population, and determine if self-reported causes of eating concerns are different for this age demographic than that of the general population. Method: An exploratory analysis of the charts of one hundred individuals, mainly women, who sought eating disorder treatment at an outpatient eating disorder treatment center, for the period of 2014-2018, was completed. Respondents met the age criteria and were 18-36 years old. Results: The majority of individuals reported beginning dieting behaviors or restricting their food intake as the main cause of their eating disorder (44%). Discussion: Millennial individuals are comparative to the general public when self-reporting precipitating events that lead to the development of an eating disorder. Risk factors inherent to eating disorders, such as early dieting, body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression remain the same for this population.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Couturier ◽  
Danielle Pellegrini ◽  
Catherine Miller ◽  
Paul Agar ◽  
Cheryl Webb ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted individuals with eating disorders; resulting in increased symptoms, as well as feelings of isolation and anxiety. To conform with social distancing requirements, outpatient eating disorder treatment in Canada is being delivered virtually, but a lack of direction surrounding this change creates challenges for practitioners, patients, and families. As a result, there is an urgent need to not only adapt evidence-based care, including family-based treatment (FBT), to virtual formats, but to study its implementation in eating disorder programs. We propose to study the initial adaptation and adoption of virtual family-based treatment (vFBT) with the ultimate goal of improving access to services for youth with eating disorders. Methods We will use a multi-site case study with a mixed method pre/post design to examine the impact of our implementation approach across four pediatric eating disorder programs. We will develop implementation teams at each site (consisting of therapists, medical practitioners, and program administrators), provide a remote training workshop on vFBT, and offer ongoing consultation during the initial implementation phase. Therapists will submit videorecordings of their first four vFBT sessions. We propose to study our implementation approach by examining (1) whether the key components of standard FBT are maintained in virtual delivery measured by therapist self-report, (2) fidelity to our vFBT model measured by expert fidelity rating of submitted videorecordings of the first four sessions of vFBT, (3) team and patient/family experiences with vFBT assessed with qualitative interviews, and (4) patient outcomes measured by weight and binge/purge frequency reported by therapists. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate an implementation strategy for virtually delivered FBT for eating disorders. Challenges to date include confirming site participation and obtaining ethics approval at all locations. This research is imperative to inform the delivery of vFBT in the COVID-19 context. It also has implications for delivery in a post-pandemic era where virtual services may be preferable to patients and families living in remote locations, where access to specialized services is extremely limited. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04678843, registered on December 21, 2020.


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