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Hi, my name is Hayley and I work for beat! I am currently working on projects for the carers and the brothers and sisters of people with eating disorders.
The project for carers aims to train our helpline team to better deal with calls from carers, to create a new carers' section of our website, to make 3 new advice leaflets for carers, and to get some carers involved in campaigning activities.
The project for brothers and sisters (siblings) aims to create some new pages on our website for the brothers and sisters of those with an eating disorder, and to publish three new leaflets for siblings too.
We recently posted questionnaires for siblings, carers and professionals to fill in, and received over 120 responses. Thanks to everyone who filled in a questionnaire, your input is greatly appreciated!
The completed questionnaires for siblings, carers and professionals, were analysed and findings showed the following:
Analysis of answers regarding those caring for someone with an eating disorder:
- 87% of carers and 74% of professionals completing our questionnaire think that services for people caring for someone with an eating disorder need improving.
- Although the majority of carers completing the questionnaires were mothers, it is apparent that there is a need to acknowledge and support other types of carers; such as friends, step-parents and particularly male carers such as boyfriends and husbands.
- The website is the beat service most commonly used by carers.
- The use of the word ‘carer’ itself appears to cause some confusion, as it appears that many people assume it simply means ‘parent’. Perhaps a different label for the new services might make them more accessible to a wider range of people ‘looking after someone with an eating disorder’.
- It has also been made clear that we need to acknowledge the needs of people caring for a sufferer that is an adult themselves, or perhaps living away from home, as much of the current information for carers is aimed at the parents of teenage sufferers.
- Topics to be included in the helpline information programme, carers’ web pages, and carers’ leaflets were ranked according to popularity, although it was interesting to note that most of the topics scored highly, suggesting they would all be quite useful. The results will be discussed further with groups of carers and professionals as we develop the new services and resources.
- Other ideas that were suggested by carers and professionals included celebrity involvement in the project, including information about how to protect sufferers from detrimental information such as pro-ana/mia websites and greater publicity of both the project and beat’s services in general.
For more information about the project for carers please click here!
Analysis of answers regarding the siblings of people with an eating disorder:
- 97% of siblings and 95% of professionals completing the questionnaire said they had not used any services specifically for siblings of those with eating disorders before.
- Those who hadn’t used any services for siblings were asked whether or not they think some need to be created. Of those that provided an answer, 93% of siblings and 100% of professionals believe that there is a need for services for siblings of people with eating disorders.
- Topics to be included in the siblings’ leaflets and web pages were ranked according to popularity, and will be discussed further with groups of siblings and professionals as we develop the new resources.
- Other ideas suggested by siblings and professionals were to maintain a positive, pro-recovery theme throughout the project, and to promote both the project and beat’s services in general more actively.
- The need for services for adult siblings was raised, as well as information on the types of support available to them. The importance of communication within the family, and the benefits that may be gained from relabeling the siblings’ leaflets to make them more accessible over a wider age range were also highlighted.
For more information about the project for siblings please click here!
beat are also running some other projects at the moment, to find out more please follow this link!
