Evaluating non-professional self-help groups for people with eating disorders
✍ Scribed by J. T. Newton
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 44 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1072-4133
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✦ Synopsis
Non-professional self-help groups for individuals with eating disorders are becoming increasingly popular. The number of such groups registered with the Eating Disorders Association has shown an increase of one-third in the period January 1998 (42 groups) to June 1999 (57 groups). However there has been very little research evaluating such groups. There remain many unanswered questions concerning both the outcome of self-help interventions, and the methods used to research those views. Any attempt to evaluate selfhelp groups presents many challenges for researchers. In brief, the most notable among these are: the heterogeneity of interventions which are termed `self-help'; the choice of appropriate measures; the problem of professionals evaluating an intervention which is aimed at non-professionals; the selection of participants in self-help.
Non-professional self-help groups vary widely in both form and content. Different groups are likely to have different goals and to be suited to different individuals. Variation in group format and function has been noted (Enright et al., 1985).
The goals of self-help groups will have an impact upon the choice of appropriate outcome measurements, though this is made more dif®cult since such groups are likely to vary in the extent to which they make explicit statements of purpose. For example, Overeaters Anonymous and similar approaches modelled on Alcoholics Anonymous set strict requirements for the symptomatic relief of members' eating disorders. Other groups may not have similar expectations of behaviour change. Caplan (1974a,b) suggests that selfhelp groups aim to promote emotional mastery, to offer guidance in problem solving and to provide the individual social feedback regarding their behaviour. This is similar to the functions of self-help outlined by Kinoy (1985) and Hartley (1988). In assessing the impact of non-professional selfhelp groups it is important to take a multidimensional approach in order to re¯ect the many underlying dimensions of purpose. The characteristics of service users and the form of intervention in which they participate, may in CCC 1072±4133/2000/010001±03$17.50