Collaborative care skill training workshop: how Australian carers support a loved one with an eating disorder

This study examined the impact of participating in the Collaborative
Care Skill Training Workshops on carers’ coping strategies, expressed
emotion (EE), burden, distress, confidence in their loved one’s
capacity to change, as well as the previously unexplored dimension
of accommodating and enabling of their loved one’s eating
disorder behaviour. A non-experimental research design was
implemented and 77 carers from Victoria, Australia participated in
the study and completed questionnaires at pre-and postintervention
and an 8-week follow-up. Significant reductions
occurred in accommodation and enabling of some eating disorder
behaviours, as well as in carers’ maladaptive coping, EE, eatingdisorder-
specific burden and psychological distress. Increased
confidence that their loved one could change was also observed.
These changes were maintained at a follow-up. Results suggest
that the workshop can be effective in decreasing carer use of
maladaptive coping, carer distress and burden. Notably, it targets
and had contributed to reducing factors associated with
maintaining eating disorders such as accommodation and enabling
of certain eating behaviours and high levels of EE. Modification to
the content of the workshop may be required to improve carers’
adaptive coping and reduce certain behaviours which
accommodate and enable the eating disorder.