A narrative approach: barriers and facilitators to access and care in services for youth eating disorders in Atlantic Canada

Abstract

Through a narrative approach, this thesis explores youth and family perspectives on experiences in accessing eating disorder services in Atlantic Canada. These narrative journeys were explored through conversations with a range of participants (five youth and six parents) in a one to one interview setting, thus providing rich and specific experiential data. The main barriers discovered were a lack of psychological services, guidance from family physicians, resources, and eating disorder education. Main facilitators included having a knowledgeable family physician, psychological support, an outpatient program, an eating disorder advocacy organization, and an adolescent eating disorder service. Major recommendations focus on increasing the number of experienced clinical psychologists in the province and increasing specific eating disorder training for service providers. This type of multi-vocal data is novel in Atlantic Canada, and holds value in including voices of youth and their families when exploring how to better improve services. The findings are interpreted in relation to ecological models of youth development.