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A Treatment Package without Escape Extinction to Address Food Selectivity
Published on: August 21, 2015
Parental experiences with their child's eating disorder treatment journey
Jennifer S Coelho1,2, Janet Suen3, Sheila Marshall4,5
1Provincial Specialized Eating Disorders Program for Children and Adolescents, BC Children's Hospital, 4500 Oak St., Box 150, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3N1, Canada. jennifer.coelho@cw.bc.ca.
Insights
Parents face significant barriers accessing pediatric eating disorder treatment, including diagnostic delays and system challenges. Early identification and smoother care transitions are crucial for effective intervention and child recovery.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Family Therapy
Background:
- Parental involvement is critical for successful pediatric eating disorder treatment.
- Understanding parental experiences in accessing specialized care is essential.
- This study explores barriers and facilitators in tertiary-level eating disorder treatment for children and adolescents.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate parental experiences with accessing specialized pediatric eating disorder treatment.
- To identify barriers and facilitators in the diagnostic and treatment process.
- To understand the role of parents throughout their child's eating disorder recovery journey.
Main Methods:
- Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten parents whose children completed a specialized pediatric eating disorder program.
- A visual timeline method was used to capture parental experiences.
- Interpretive induction was applied to identify emergent themes.
Main Results:
- Key concepts included delays in symptom identification, challenges in accessing services, and the importance of timely, appropriate treatment.
- Parents reported significant emotional impacts, including guilt and self-blame.
- Parental expertise and active involvement were identified as crucial facilitators.
Conclusions:
- System-related challenges and difficulties in care transitions impede access to specialized eating disorder treatment.
- Early symptom identification and improved clinical decision-making are vital for optimal patient outcomes.
- Facilitating smoother transitions between community and tertiary care enhances treatment effectiveness.
Background:
Parents are integral in the treatment of pediatric eating disorders. The current study was conducted to further understand the barriers and facilitators that parents experience in accessing specialized, tertiary level eating disorder treatment for children and adolescents. The goals of the study were to understand the processes leading to diagnosis and treatment, perceived barriers and facilitators to accessing care, and parents' experiences over the course of their child's eating disorder treatment.
Methods:
Ten parents whose children were admitted to a Canadian tertiary level specialized pediatric eating disorders program took part in an exit interview upon their child's completion of treatment in the program. In-depth semi-structured interviews were combined with a visual timeline. Interpretive induction was performed to generate high-level concepts that emerged from the interviews.
Results:
Five high-level concepts were identified: (1) delays in identifying eating disorder symptoms, (2) challenges in accessing eating disorder services, (3) the right treatment at the right time, (4) emotional impact on parents, and (5) parental expertise and involvement.
Conclusions:
Several barriers were identified by parents that interfered with treatment, including system-related challenges when accessing specialized eating disorder treatment, concerns about a lack of appropriate mental health support for their child, and difficulties with transitioning between community and tertiary level care. Negative emotions, including guilt and self-blame, were common early in the treatment journey. Themes of parental involvement throughout treatment, and parents taking charge of their child's recovery, emerged across interviews. The results of this study suggest the importance of early identification of eating disorder symptoms, facilitating smoother transitions between levels of care (e.g., community services and hospital-based eating disorder care), and improving clinical decision-making to ensure children and adolescents with eating disorders receive the most appropriate treatment based on their clinical presentation.
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