Invitation to Participate: Skills-Based Online Self-Help Program for Carers of People with an Eating Disorder: SupportED Program Evaluation

Thank you for your interest in the evaluation study about the InsideOut Institute SupportED eProgram for Carers of people with an Eating Disorder hosted by InsideOut. The InsideOut Institute for Eating Disorders is part of the Central Clinical School within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and is a national institute for research and clinical excellence in eating disorders.

InsideOut has launched an online program for carers to address the lack of support and accessible resources afforded for carers of people with eating disorders. We hope by improving access to appropriate knowledge and resources, carers will feel more confident to care for their loved ones.

This study aims to evaluate how useful and practical the InsideOut SupportED eProgram is for Carers. We would like to see how the program supports carers in experiencing less burden and distress, and how it impact’s carer’s knowledge, willingness, confidence and skill-level in providing care to those they are supporting. We would also like to use the feedback and information gained to inform ongoing development and improvement of the program’s content and delivery, and to provide some insight into how suitable online programs and resources for carers are more broadly.

Participation in this research study is voluntary and will provide you with access to SupportED for three months, free of cost, prior to release of SupportED to the public planned for mid-2024

Participation in the study involves completing brief questionnaires at the beginning of the program, end of the program and three months after completing the program. We also invite you to provide us with further feedback via a zoom or phone-based follow-up interview. We aim to conduct these interviews three months after you have completed the program.

Participation in the study is optional and if you decide to consent, your responses will be completely deidentified.

To be eligible to undertake the SupportED eProgram at this point in time we require participants to be willing to partake in the evaluation study. The interview portion of the study, however, is an additional optional component. Alternatively, you can decline consent and you will be given the option to sign up for notifications on the public release of the program.

The study itself is unfunded and will be conducted by the staff at the InsideOut Institute of Eating Disorders and by Masters of Clinical Psychology candidate Jasmin Schlage, as part of her higher degree at the University of Sydney, supervised by investigators Dr Jane Miskovic-Wheatley and Prof Caroline Hunt. Jasmin Schlage is a provisional psychologist and study investigator who is undertaking the current evaluation study as part of her Masters project in Clinical Psychology at the University of Sydney. If you have any questions about the study or difficulties in accessing any information, please email researcher Jasmin Schlage at insideout.research@sydney.edu.au.

This study has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee - CRGH of the Sydney Local Health District. If you have any concerns or complaints about the conduct of the research study, you may contact the Executive Officer of the Ethics Committee, on (02) 9767 5622 and quote protocol number 2020/ETH01779. The conduct of this study at the InsideOut Institute has been authorised by the University of Sydney. Any person with concerns or complaints about the conduct of this study may contact the study coordinator on (02) 8627 5690 and quote the protocol number 2020/ETH01779.

If at any time you feel distressed, you can call the Butterfly Foundation at 1800 33 4673 to get support from an eating disorder specialist, the Mental Health Access Line for NSW at 1800 011 511, the Carer Gateway at 1800 422 737 for carer specific support or LifeLine at 13 11 14 for crisis support.