ANAD mentors are people who have walked the difficult road to recovery from their eating disorder and are recovered for at least 2 years. Mentors support their mentees in their journey as a source of hope, wisdom, and empathy. ANAD is a donation-based recovery community. We believe eating disorder support should be affordable and accessible to all.
To continue offering our services for free to those who need it, we rely on donations from those who can afford them. Please consider supporting our mission. ANAD is the leading nonprofit in the U. Learn more about us here. Instead, there is great strength to be found in reaching out, and through vulnerability, inspiring others to do the same. If you are the individual struggling, one consideration may be to include a mentor to your treatment team on your recovery journey.
Sometimes a mentor is helpful in initiating the treatment process, and can offer insight and support through the admissions process or step down care. A good mentor is one who provides guidance, compassion, and care, and can help the individual navigate the treatment process and be another accountability partner.
They can be a valuable listening ear, and should always recommend resources and point to licensed professionals for further counseling and follow up. The best mentors provide love and support, are percent recovered themselves, and always recommend professional help if their skills in a certain area are lacking. Lastly, families, especially parents, can benefit from mentoring relationships as well.
Parents often can feel the most alone, and while parent support groups are helpful, it can really make a difference to be able to talk with parents that have already been through the struggle and have come out on the other side. Again, as with individual mentoring, parents should find mentors whose loved one is fully recovered, and can help the parents navigate the process of healing. They often can provide valuable information as to resources available, and can be tremendously helpful in assuaging guilt, surrounding the parents with support, and helping them discover new truths about their family and their life.
Mentors and the community play vital roles in recovery. Eating disorders do not occur in a vacuum, and they cannot be beaten in one either. It takes a strong support team and mentors can be a big part of that. Do not hesitate to reach out for help and support, and consider a healthy, strong, and caring mentoring relationship as a part of the treatment process.
When it has proper boundaries and keeps the focus on health and healing, these relationships can be some of the most beautiful and wonderful things about the recovery journey. About the author: Kirsten Haglund continues to work as an advocate for greater awareness of eating disorders and resources for care.
Since she won the crown of Miss America , she has spoken on numerous college campuses, worked with youth and church groups domestically and abroad, lobbied Congress with the Eating Disorders Coalition, and started her own non-profit, the Kirsten Haglund Foundation, to raise funds and assist families financially in seeking treatment for eating disorders. Proof-of-concept studies are considered when the objective of the study is to obtain an initial evaluation of the potential benefit of a treatment or program [ 13 ].
Participatory action research PAR principles founded program development. PAR allows participants the flexibility to determine aspects of the program that suit their needs within a framework. Whilst aspects of the program were flexible e. See Nicholls et al. The program ran for 13 weeks. There were ten mentor—mentee pairs. There were two types of measures used in the study: 1 those to assess the benefits of the program and; 2 those to monitor the health and well-being of the participants during the study.
The primary outcome measure was hope. Hope was measured using the validated Domain Specific Hope Scale [ 15 ]. The higher the score the greater the level of hope. It has robust psychometrics [ 15 ]. The secondary outcome measures included quality of life, distress and the mentoring relationship. The SF is a item self-report questionnaire that measures functional health and well-being using two subscales; the physical component summary and the mental component summary [ 16 ].
The EDQoL scale is a item self-report measure assessing the degree to which an individual feels their eating disorder affects their quality of life [ 17 ]. The K10 is a item self-report questionnaire that yields a global measure of distress based on questions about anxiety and depressive symptoms.
It has robust psychometrics [ 18 ]. The perception of the mentoring relationship was assessed using the validated match characteristic questionnaire MCQ [ 19 ]. The MCQ is a 29 item, self-report instrument for measuring positive and negative perceptions of the mentoring relationship, the valuation of different purposes in the match, and the effects of external influences on the match [ 19 ].
These measures were assessed at baseline before the program started and at completion of the program except for the MCQ, which was assessed post program only.
Individuals completed assessments mid program at 7 weeks and post program except for the GMeRQS which was completed at weeks 3 and 9 of the program to monitor stages of the mentoring relationship. All outcomes except for the MCQ assessing the benefit of the program were analysed using a paired t test comparing baseline and the post treatment results using Microsoft Excel.
Standard scoring methods were applied to the validated questionnaires. This scores each of the domains. The Australian scoring tool was used and provides a population average for comparison against the mentors only.
As the mentees could not be compared to any means there were no comparisons. The MCQ scoring was done only post program. Intent to treat was applied for the incomplete questionnaires by carrying baseline over to post-program scores. Outcome measures to assess the health and well-being of the participants were subjected to inferential statistical analysis. The dyad who corresponded via email only discontinued the program 2 weeks after commencement, as the mentee returned to hospital eating disorder related.
This couple did not complete any further questionnaires. In addition one mentee did not complete any of the post program questionnaires. Medians and standard deviations for the data for assessing benefit are reported see Tables 1 and 2. There were no other significant results for the other outcome measures; however, in all outcome measures, except for the EDQoL Psychological domain, mentees outcome measures improved or were stable on average.
Population averages were only available for the mentors for the MCQ and the mentors were generally similar to the population norms see Additional file 1.
The mentors did not feel as close and felt more distance between themselves and the mentees than the population norm. The mentors perceived the mentees needed support both academic and non-academic , which was greater than the population norm. The mentors also valued talking and sharing more than the population norm.
There were no significant results for the mentors. There was a significant increase in hope for the mentees from baseline to post program.
The authors found no mentoring and eating disorder trials that assessed hope however there is considerable qualitative research that shows that hope is an important aspect in the recovery process from an eating disorder [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Previous research shows hope has been linked to improved treatment compliance and has improved the therapeutic alliance in treatment for those with severe and enduring AN [ 10 ]. The focus of this program was not to improve treatment compliance but future studies may want to consider using treatment compliance as an outcome measure.
Recovery from an eating disorder is difficult [ 6 ] and any adjunct treatment that supports recovery is valuable. While improvement in hope was seen for the mentees as a group, specifically the two participants with severe and enduring AN had small increases in hope from baseline to post program.
Hope is an important factor in the recovery process from longstanding AN. These individuals are often resistant to traditional treatments with high levels of impairment in most aspects of life with poor outcomes [ 6 ]. Mentoring programs that focus on improving hope may provide valuable adjunct support for those in treatment for an eating disorder including those with SEAN.
Further research could specifically investigate the use of a mentoring program for individuals with SEAN. One of the concerns of a mentoring program for individuals with an eating disorder is maintaining safety. The study results show that the mentors remained stable during the program and although non-significant in all aspects, except for reported hope domains, the mentees, on average, improved or were stable in all study outcomes, except the EDQoL psychological domain for which there was a small decrease.
The reason for the decrease in the psychological EDQoL domain is unknown. The mid-point EDQoL results for mentees also showed a small average rise so it seems unlikely that the end of the program influenced quality of life.
Examination of the individual answers to the psychological domain questions did not indicate a specific decrease in any one aspect of psychological QoL. Interest exceeded expectations and resources indicating that individuals with an eating disorder are interested in a mentoring program.
Given this, it is feasible that a larger study could recruit the mentee participant numbers needed. Further given the increase of hope seen and the promising results that indicate program safety, future efficacy randomised controlled trials are warranted. The mentoring support program showed promise in improving hope.
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