Beat Eating Disorders, July 2019
Guidelines that call for all healthcare providers to adopt eight best practice standards, encouraging them to:
- 1. Have a policy that ensures optimum involvement of and support for all carers as soon as a loved one starts treatment.
- 2. Train all service staff in the application of the policy and these standards with particular focus on the importance of carers as a resource for recovery.
- 3. Provide all carers with useful and comprehensive information about eating disorders when their loved one receives a diagnosis.
- 4. Offer all carers and siblings an assessment of their own needs when a loved one receives an eating disorder diagnosis, continue to monitor their wellbeing throughout the sufferer’s treatment and, where necessary, refer carers to specialist services.
- 5. Offer all carers options for peer-to-peer support.
- 6. Offer all carers opportunities to learn the necessary skills to provide optimum support for their loved ones.
- 7. Inform and engage carers when a loved one faces a transition between services and ensure that effective communication between both services and carers takes place.
- 8. Provide a mechanism by which carers’ input and feedback is sought and acted upon.
Click here to view the guideline.