Eating disorders

Although eating disorders are prevalent among learning-disabled people, very few research studies have focused on this population. As a result, little is known about how learning-disabled people understand and experience eating disorders, leaving this patient subgroup without effective prevention and treatment options.

Dr Karin Eli and her team at the University of Warwick, University of Birmingham and Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust will explore how learning-disabled people view, understand and experience eating disorders.

First, they will work together with learning-disabled stakeholders to co-produce a new arts-based research method, focused on exploring issues related to food and eating. Purple Patch Arts, a Leeds-based charity specialising in creative work with learning-disabled people, will partner with the research team to facilitate this co-production process.

In the second part of the project, the team will work with community groups to facilitate arts-based workshops with learning-disabled people across England. They will analyse their findings to understand barriers and facilitators that may influence how learning-disabled people access ED prevention and treatment. Dr Eli then plans to translate these findings into policy impact, partnering with the ED charity Beat to develop guidelines that can improve eating disorder prevention and treatment for this population.