Commission us for co-production

What can we offer?

We can support external partners in a number of ways including:

• Recruiting Experts by Experience (EBEs). EBEs can include both those with lived experience of an eating disorder and those who've supported someone with an eating disorder.
• Facilitating and running advisory boards of EBEs
• Safeguarding and wellbeing support for the EBEs throughout the duration of the project, to ensure that the EBEs are safe and supported when sharing their experiences. The safety of the EBEs is our top priority here at Beat, and our expertise around wellbeing support sets us apart as a high-quality partner for eating disorder projects.
• High quality co-production training to external partners, which focuses on the involvement of those with lived experience in a safe, engaging and meaningful way.
• Consultation can be provided throughout the project to ensure that knowledge remains up to date and support can be provided with any ongoing challenges.

We can tailor our involvement with you to meet your project’s needs and budget expectations and will work with you to ensure that there is meaningful involvement. The above examples act as a guide of what we can offer, however we are more than happy to explore further opportunities with you if you are looking for something different.

Beat Criteria

When recruiting an Expert by Experience (EBE) for a Co-production project with Beat, they must meet the following recovery criteria:

For EBEs with experience of either Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating Disorder, OSFED, or T1DE:

• The EBE needs to be in stable recovery for at least 12 months and not exhibiting eating disorder behaviors.
• Be able to manage eating disorder thoughts and able to identify potential triggers and have healthy coping mechanisms around these.
• There is no requirement for previous professional support or diagnosis. If the person has had professional support, they must no longer be accessing this for treatment of their eating disorder.

For EBEs with experience of either ARFID, Pica, or Rumination:

• Be able to manage eating disorder thoughts and able to identify potential triggers and have healthy coping mechanisms around these.
• If still exhibiting eating disorder behaviors, we will assess the impact of these behaviors on the individual’s quality of life and whether the individual is physically and mentally safe to take part.
• There is no requirement for previous professional support or diagnosis. If the person has had professional support, we will ask them if they are currently accessing treatment for their eating disorder and assess the impact this may have on them taking part.

We recognise that there are various challenges to access support for these feeding and eating disorders, and thus our criteria differs for different experiences.

For EBEs who have cared for someone with an eating disorder:

• We will explore if their loved one is in treatment for their eating disorder and, if so, where they were in their treatment and recovery.
• We will explore and ask questions to determine whether their involvement would be detrimental to their wellbeing and focus on the impact of them sharing their experiences as a carer.

Conditions that must be met

The welfare and safety of the people with lived experience recruited to engage in participation of any kind must be the top priority. As a result, Beat’s involvement in this collaboration will be dependent upon us being able to effectively onboard the Experts by Experience (EBEs) through a thorough recruitment process. This ensures that we can build a relationship to assess the risks to each individual and therefore provide the support they need to be able to contribute confidently and safely. As part of this Beat must be able to hold the necessary data, so that, if necessary, a safeguarding response can be initiated quickly - without having to contact other organisations or rely on complex data-sharing agreements.

Other organisations would have an important role in helping to promote the opportunity to people with lived experience, but those EBEs that were interested would need to be recruited through a dedicated recruitment process managed by Beat who lead the following:

• Design and delivery of information sessions for the advisory group.
• Use of a range of methods and networks to involve a range of people, for example, including a range of eating disorder diagnoses, men, LGBTQ+ people, minoritised ethnic groups, a range of socio-economic backgrounds, and geographical locations (rural/urban).
• Processing of ‘expressions of interest’ forms.
• Informal discussions with potential panel members.
• Ensure EBEs are aware of the remit and expectations of their involvement and that there is an option to step away for a time or to withdraw completely if necessary due to their circumstances (including wellbeing).
• Participant training for all EBEs to ensure they feel confident and safe to take part.
• If the project is longer than one year, this includes an additional recruitment round to be used to ‘top up’ participant numbers as people may choose to no longer take part.

Contact us

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