Parent and caregivers experiences of home-based meal support
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring parent and caregivers experiences of home-based meal support in the treatment of child and adolescent anorexia nervosa within a community CAMHS team
IRAS ID
288080
Contact name
Mairead Horan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bath
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 2 days
Research summary
Meal support is provided during phase 1 of The Maudsley Family Therapy Manual for the Treatment of Child and Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa (Lock and Le Grange, 2015). This is a widely used model of treatment in CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) eating disorder services across the UK. It uses an integrated systemic family approach to treat anorexia nervosa (AN) in line with NICE (2017) guidelines. Meal support aims to work with whole families in order to ‘re-feed’ the child/ adolescent, viewing food and meal-times as a ‘prescription’. Meal support is provided to individuals in order to prevent admission to hospital and facilitate what can be lifesaving behavioural changes in order for the child or adolescent to regain weight.\n\nThere is a strong evidence base for meal support interventions in the treatment of children and adolescents with AN. Research has considered different modes of meal support intervention delivery e.g. in clinic vs via video vs face to face. However, there is a lack of research considering the experience of parents and caregivers, who have received home-based meal support. This could help determine whether delivering meal support at home is seen as more acceptable and convenient to parent and caregivers and whether it could potentially prevent drop-out rates in comparison to the current method (clinic-based meal support) recommended by the Maudsley model.\n\nThis study aims to investigate parent and caregivers’ experiences of home-based family meal support by conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews with 15-20 parents and caregivers from BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire TEDS (The Eating Disorder Service). An interview schedule will be followed and is expected to last up to one hour. All interviews will be video recorded by the chief investigator, a clinical psychologist in training with experience of working in mental health.\n
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SC/0153
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion