Research Review: Parental Experiences With Their Child’s Eating Disorder Treatment Journey

By: Laurie Cooper, Psy.D., HSP, CEDS-S

It is widely agreed that the eating disorder field has shown tremendous growth with regard to including parents in the treatment of a child with an eating disorder.  While families are increasingly involved as part of the treatment team via interventions such as Family Based Therapy (FBT), there is still a growing body of data that suggests families encounter barriers and challenges in accessing and navigating treatment, which can have a negative impact on the family or even impede the child’s recovery.  

In this study, found in the Journal of Eating Disorders, a sample of families whose child was admitted to a specialized Eating Disorder Program in Vancouver, BC, Canada, were interviewed about their experiences leading up to and following treatment.  The following themes emerged as barriers or challenges to their child’s treatment and recovery:

1) Delays in identifying eating disorder symptoms:  Parents reported a lack of recognition of the seriousness of eating behavior and/or failure to recognize the problem due to the child’s gender or age

2) Challenges with accessing eating disorder services:  This was often due to a lack of accessible eating disorder specialists/services or delays in accessing treatment due to waiting lists

3) Finding the right treatment at the right time:  Families reported bouncing between care providers, unhelpful or unsupportive care from providers or failure to access the right intensity of care for their child from the start

4) The emotional impact on parents:  Parents felt significant guilt and anxiety and felt at a loss about how to best support their child – particularly in the early stages of illness. 

These barriers and challenges were particularly evident in the transitions entering and exiting the intensive treatment setting.  On the other hand, parents perceived the treatment process as facilitated when they were able to develop an improved understanding of eating disorders and the recovery process, when health care professionals provided a supportive and welcoming environment, and when parents advocated for referrals to specialists and took charge of the recovery process.

In summary, while this study had significant limitations in its methodology and design, the results help elucidate thought provoking issues for the treatment of children and adolescents with eating disorders.  Namely, the barriers and challenges families have encountered in the journey to accessing care for their child are numerous and may be a factor in the child’s recovery process.  Conversely, acknowledging the aspects of care that facilitate the treatment process, from the parents’ perspectives, may be an important enhancement to the child’s recovery process.