Care experiences of young people with eating disorders and their parents: qualitative study
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Perspectives of young people with eating disorders and their parents on helpful aspects of care should be incorporated into evidence-based practice and service design, but data are limited.
Aims
To explore patient and parent perspectives on positive and negative aspects of care for young people with eating disorders.
Method
Six online focus groups with 19 young people aged 16–25 years with existing or past eating disorders and 11 parents.
Results
Thematic analysis identified three key themes: the need to (a) shift from a weight-focused to a more holistic, individualised and consistent care approach, with a better balance in targeting psychological and physical problems from an early stage; (b) improve professionals' knowledge and attitude towards patients and their families at all levels of care from primary to ‘truly specialist’; (c) enhance peer and family support.
Conclusions
Young people and parents identified an array of limitations in approaches to care for young people with eating disorders and raised the need for change, particularly a move away from a primarily weight-focused treatment and a stronger emphasis on psychological needs and individualised care.
Perspectives of young people with eating disorders and their parents on helpful aspects of care should be incorporated into evidence-based practice and service design, but data are limited.
Aims
To explore patient and parent perspectives on positive and negative aspects of care for young people with eating disorders.
Method
Six online focus groups with 19 young people aged 16–25 years with existing or past eating disorders and 11 parents.
Results
Thematic analysis identified three key themes: the need to (a) shift from a weight-focused to a more holistic, individualised and consistent care approach, with a better balance in targeting psychological and physical problems from an early stage; (b) improve professionals' knowledge and attitude towards patients and their families at all levels of care from primary to ‘truly specialist’; (c) enhance peer and family support.
Conclusions
Young people and parents identified an array of limitations in approaches to care for young people with eating disorders and raised the need for change, particularly a move away from a primarily weight-focused treatment and a stronger emphasis on psychological needs and individualised care.
Date Issued
2019-01
Date Acceptance
2018-11-19
Citation
BJPsych Open, 2019, 5 (1)
ISSN
2056-4724
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Journal / Book Title
BJPsych Open
Volume
5
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Royal College of Psychiatrists. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e6
Date Publish Online
2019-01-10