Mentorship Support as an Adjunct to Standard FBT
While FBT is regarded as the ‘gold standard treatment’ for anorexia nervosa, there is a continued need for testing further improvements to the approach, given that over half of those who undergo FBT do not show remission by end of the treatment course (Lock, 2018). A number of studies have been conducted looking at the benefits and challenges of providing an individual with a ‘lived experience’ mentor, defined as one who has a shared struggle and has since recovered.  Mentorship programs have been shown to improve quality of life and decrease psychiatric symptoms in other health conditions (Pitt et al., 2013). When looking specifically at mentorship in eating disorders, reported benefits to mentees include feelings of belonging, comfort, hope, connection and a unique sense of support due to the mentor’s lived experience.  One study examined the influence of parent to parent support on outcomes of FBT for anorexia nervosa by randomizing 20 families to receive either standard FBT or FBT with the addition of parent consultation. The rate of weight restoration was found to be higher in the group receiving parent to parent support (Rhodes, 2008). More recently, adjunctive peer mentorship has been shown to reduce mentees’ symptoms of anxiety, depression and body dissatisfaction, and to improve engagement in treatment (Ranzenhofer et al., 2020).