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Volume 3 Supplement 1

Proceedings of the 2015 Australia and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders (ANZAED) Conference: Riding the Waves to Recovery

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A mentor-mentee support program for people with anorexia nervosa

Journal of Eating Disorders volume 3, Article number: O45 (2015) Cite this article

Background

Successful mentorship enhances quality of life, hope for recovery and empowers people with anorexia nervosa (AN) to develop health-promoting strategies, with immeasurable benefits for both mentor and mentee.

Aims

To develop and evaluate, in consultation with stakeholders (people with AN and recovered individuals), a mentorship support program for people with AN in NSW.

Methods

This study is a mixed methods participatory action research (PAR) project. Participants are pivotal in the development and design of a tailored program. Researchers work closely with stakeholders to bring and evaluate change, through cycles of learning and reflection, actively engaging participants in the research process.

Results

During workshop discussions, participants (4 mentors and 5 mentees) defined the program, examined roles and responsibilities, partnerships, interaction, use of funds, conflict resolution and risk management. The workshop, conducted informally in a setting that simulated a home environment, reduced anxiety levels. Uncertainty evolved into an appreciation for the program, development of new relationships, learning that everyone had similar reservations yet reassurance that people were there to support and encourage recovery. Participants were positive and optimistic for the program's trial.

Conclusion

PAR is an apt research method for actively engaging stakeholders in the development of a tailored program to support recovery.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Western Sydney, Australia

    Lucie Ramjan, Sarah Fogarty & Daniel Nicholls

  2. School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Australia

    Phillipa Hay

Authors
  1. Lucie Ramjan
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  2. Sarah Fogarty
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  3. Daniel Nicholls
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  4. Phillipa Hay
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucie Ramjan.

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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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Cite this article

Ramjan, L., Fogarty, S., Nicholls, D. et al. A mentor-mentee support program for people with anorexia nervosa. J Eat Disord 3 (Suppl 1), O45 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-2974-3-S1-O45

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-2974-3-S1-O45

Keywords

Journal of Eating Disorders

ISSN: 2050-2974