A collaborative care skills workshop for carers: Can it be delivered in 1 day?

Carers of individuals with eating disorders (EDs) report high levels of burden and distress and describe a number of unmet needs. As a result, a number of interventions have been designed to support carers, including the "Maudsley eating disorder collaborative care skills workshops," which comprise six 2-hr workshops delivered over 3 months for parents and carers of people with EDs. The current study aimed to test a proof-of-concept that this workshop could be effectively delivered in 1 day. An additional aim was to assess whether the workshop had direct effects on carer skills. A nonexperimental repeated measures research design was employed, giving measures before and after a 1-day workshop. Results suggested significant increases in carer self-efficacy and carer skills, with moderate to large effect sizes. Qualitative analyses supported these results whilst also generating ideas to improve the 1-day workshop.