'Consider Male Eating Disorders': A creative approach to improving access to treatment in primary health care for men and boys with eating disorders

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This project will create a 5-minute animated training film that communicates the lived experiences of men and boys with eating disorders (EDs) to a primary audience of GPs and practice nurses. The number of men and boys affected by EDs has been steadily increasing in the Western world, yet EDs are still largely perceived to be a 'female' problem. Medical practitioners receive minimal training on male EDs, and may therefore be ill-prepared to consider an ED diagnosis in men and boys, or lack awareness of the particular challenges men and boys face in seeking medical help because of the constraints and expectations of our gendered society.In developing the animation, we will draw on research conducted and partnerships formed during the AHRC-funded Research Network 'Hungry for Words: an interdisciplinary approach to articulating, communicating and understanding male anorexia', which investigated three types of personal narratives (literature, online ego-documents, client-led oral accounts). As part of the original Network, workshops on male EDs were held for secondary school students, teachers, and university students and staff, but we also identified GPs and practice nurses as new potential beneficiaries of our work, since negative initial contact with primary care practitioners was a recurring theme in our corpus. Our analysis of the narratives pinpointed key themes that should be routinely considered when diagnosing or treating males who present an ED, including the association of EDs with homosexuality in heterosexual men, the role of sport and over-exercising, and the perception of extreme eating behaviour such as bingeing and purging as 'unmanly'. We also explored creative ways (e.g. through poetry and film) of conveying lived experiences of men and boys with EDs to a broad public.The animation, which will communicate both patients' perspectives and the latest NICE guidelines, will be designed and developed in collaboration with GPs, nurses, our partner charities (First Steps ED and MaleVoicED) and animation studio Woven Ink. It will be made freely available on our project website, promoted through a well-publicised launch event, used in the professional training delivered by our partner charities, and distributed via the networks of our partners and the medical practitioners on our Advisory Board.With male EDs on the rise, this animation represents a timely intervention that will improve training for primary health practitioners and contribute to ensuring men and boys with EDs are diagnosed and treated at the earliest opportunity.