The QuickStart Guide for Co-Production in Eating Disorders Research seeks to empower researchers to engage deeply with individuals who have living and lived experience of an eating disorder including their families and carers alongside clinicians and other relevant stakeholders. This guide focuses on co-production, outlining its concepts, principles, and practical steps for implementation with the intention of improving eating disorders outcomes across all stages of care.
This guide also aligns with the Australian Eating Disorders Research and Translation Centre values of co-design, diversity and collaboration.
The Centre is all about the ‘co.’. Research is an iterative and dynamic process best informed and co-produced at all stages between researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience, families and supports. We are genuinely invested in collaborating, co-designing, co-producing and communicating to achieve research innovations that change people’s lives.
The creation of this guide was led by a co-production team including lived experience and research experience, who further collaborated with individuals with lived experience, their families, and carers, alongside clinicians and researchers. Insights were also drawn from existing co-design and co-production resources across health, mental health, and academic domains to ensure the QuickStart Guide is robust and reflective of best practices in collaborative research.
The QuickStart Guide aims to support genuine engagement in collaborative research practices within the field of eating disorders, placing individuals with living and lived experience and their support networks at the heart of research endeavours. We hope these resources will also have relevance to other fields.
The QuickStart Guide is an evolving document, as knowledge about co-produced research with people with living and lived experience continues to grow and evolve.