Building Research and Evaluation Within an Australian Community Eating Disorder Organisation Through Academic Partnership: A Pragmatic Protocol

Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions with rising prevalence. Despite this, research and evaluation (R&E) remain under-funded, hindering translation, policy, prevention and advances in care; an equitable and responsive ecosystem of research and knowledge-sharing across the sector is needed to enhance outcomes for people and systems affected by eating disorders. Community members engage with community eating disorder organisations/services to receive guidance and support, often through innovative co-designed programs and resources. Building R&E capacity and capability within community settings is essential in capturing, leveraging and translating local


Introduction
Eating disorders are complex conditions that have a rising prevalence and systemic impacts (Ágh et al. 2016;Butterfly Foundation 2024;Hay et al. 2023;Johns et al. 2019).Despite this, funding for eating disorders research remains notoriously limited compared to other mental health conditions (All-Party Parliamentary Group 2021; Bryant et al. 2023).Pervasive and persistent gaps in research and evaluation (R&E) systems within and across the eating disorder sector hinder the creation, collection and translation of important knowledges.Strengthening an equitable and responsive ecosystem of knowledge-sharing to enable the multi-directional flow of information between community, research, policy and practice settings would (a) capture and uplift diverse community voices and experiences; (b) narrow the notable research-practice gap (Robinson et al. 2020); and (c) inform policy, prevention and treatment frameworks, and ultimately improve outcomes for communities and systems impacted by eating disorders.
Community members engage with eating disorder organisations/services in the community that provide information, advocacy, guidance and support, serving as the gateway to local knowledges such as consumer demographic data and feedback.Rich information (data) that may be created and captured at the community level could be (a) linked with state-level, national and international data to build an evidence base; (b) inform the development and delivery of future innovations; (c) support funding applications; and importantly (d) identify and address areas of community need, such as marginalised/under-serviced communities (Clark et al. 2023;National Eating Disorders Collaboration 2023).This holds implications for individual consumers, families and communities, and the broader healthcare system (Kaufman et al. 2020).
In community eating disorder settings, lived experience and peer work is increasingly becoming a central facet of organisational delivery, in that programs/services are co-designed and delivered by lived experience peers (Eating Disorders Victoria 2023; Utpala et al. 2023).This spurs innovation, such as early intervention and peer-based supports outside of clinical and research settings.R&E practices are integral to demonstrate the effectiveness, efficiency, value and merit of such programs/services, and in translating them across settings to support others.Yet in the context of under-resourcing, requisite R&E cultures, capacity and capability within eating disorder community services remain limited, as do connections with research settings in leveraging these important data.
Uplifting R&E in community services has been recommended by two ten-year national eating disorder strategies (InsideOut Institute 2021;National Eating Disorders Collaboration 2023).Establishing pathways Grant (APP1178922).This project also funded a full-time post-doctoral researcher, to be based 'on the ground' at EDV, as a primary research partner, who is also part of a larger academic team at the InsideOut Institute for Eating Disorders, which is affiliated with the University of Sydney and Sydney Local Health District.Other researcher partners include the academic co-authors of the current article, and other researchers affiliated with the InsideOut Institute who may provide research-related support and guidance.Recruitment of community partners began in August 2023; the project end date is expected to be mid-2024.

COMMUNITY SERVICE SETTING
Community eating disorder organisations provide opportunities for community members to engage in support prior to, in tandem with, and/or beyond tertiary healthcare settings, given that treatment of an eating disorder can be arduous and challenging (Conti et al. 2021;McArdle 2019;Solhaug Storli & Alsaker 2021).Eating Disorders Victoria (EDV) is an Australian community-based not-for-profit organisation that provides advocacy and support for people experiencing or caring for someone with an eating disorder.Support is available broadly through telehealth counselling and nursing, various support groups and programs, comprehensive e-learning courses, resources and linkage to external services.
Peer-based supports, normally developed within community services like EDV, represent innovative pathways to enhance people's wellbeing and recovery (Lewis & Foye 2021) and have been strongly recommended within general mental health settings and specifically within the eating disorders context (Commonwealth of Australia 2013; National Eating Disorders Collaboration 2023; State of Victoria 2023).In this way, community services present novel and unique opportunities to facilitate connections between community members and lived experience peers, alongside and beyond traditional eating disorder treatment, in efforts to validate people's experiences and further support their mental health, wellbeing and recovery (National Eating Disorders Collaboration 2019; State of Victoria 2023).

THE CARER COACHING PROGRAM
The Carer Coaching Program is an eight-week, peer-led early intervention support program offered at EDV for caregivers of a young person diagnosed with a restrictive eating disorder (i.e.anorexia nervosa, atypical anorexia, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) and currently on a waitlist to commence formal treatment.The program was co-designed in early 2020 by a group of lived experience carer consultants and EDV service providers in response to long waitlists to access treatment services during the COVID-19 pandemic.People with lived experience of caring for a young person with an eating disorder were responsible for developing most of the program content.Two of them had expertise in program design and clinical governance.Program content then underwent a review process with senior managers within the organisation prior to delivery.The program is facilitated by lived experience peer workers ('Carer Coaches').
Key components of the Carer Coaching Program include peer-based support, psychoeducation around eating disorders and evidence-based treatments, basic meal support (not dietary advice), emotional regulation strategies, self-care and managing fatigue, and provision of appropriate resources.These components draw on prior interventions by carers of young people with an eating disorder, including peerled (e.g., Grennan et al. 2022), clinician-led (e.g., Gisladottir et al. 2017;Kurnik Mesarič et al. 2024) and self-directed (Truttmann et al. 2020)

interventions.
While Carer Coaches undertake regular professional development training, it is made clear to program participants that they offer peer based guidance and support, not clinical perspectives.Content is flexibly delivered in a personalised manner to address unique support needs of program participants.While session-by-session outlines exist, these serve as general practices; in practice, the order of session delivery may change in order to deliver more pertinent information sooner.This type of flexible, tailored delivery is common across EDV's programs and services promoting personalised care.All sessions are delivered remotely via Zoom software.Following sessions, Carer Coaches send follow-up emails to program participants with a summary of the key points and materials used in the sessions, as well as any relevant additional resources (e.g.handouts, websites).
Carer Coaches engage in monthly supervision with a manager, who is also a mental health clinician, in addition to ad hoc consultation when additional needs emerge.They also attend weekly multidisciplinary team meetings and regular lived experience group supervision.Collectively, supervision and consultations provide opportunities to discuss the suitability of participation, risk and ethical practice management, plan sessions and discuss challenging cases, engage in reflective practice and to receive emotional support.

COMMUNITY-ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIP
A community-academic partnership will be established and maintained across multiple and varied points of engagement over approximately 12 months to jointly co-plan, co-design, implement, monitor and evaluate R&E practices of the Carer Coaching Program.As the primary research partner, co-author Verma will contribute her professional expertise by sharing her knowledge of ethical, practical and methodological considerations around R&E.Those employed within a directorial, managerial or service provision role within EDV and have close involvement with the Carer Coaching Program will be invited to take part, read an explanatory statement and provide informed consent (see Appendices 1 and 2).As community partners, service providers will be invited to contribute their expertise and unique local knowledge of community needs, and personal, organisational and contextual factors, which may include prior R&E knowledge.Community partners will also be encouraged to take an active role in developing and undertaking research evaluation practices.This may include sharing ideas, engaging in decision-making during meetings with the primary research partner and engaging in the development and review of emerging R&E processes and materials.Appendix 3 lists anticipated roles and responsibilities of partners.

DESIGN
This project adopts a longitudinal community-based participatory framework.To assist with engaging in interactive and iterative co-design processes with community partners, we will be guided by existing community-engaged R&E methodologies and guidelines (e.g., April et al. 2023;Banks et al. 2013;Israel et al. 2012;Jull et al. 2017;Kaufman et al. 2020;Reed 2015;Sadler et al. 2012).Additionally, we use frameworks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 1999) and the New South Wales Treasury (NSW, 2013), which collectively outline the steps, standards and principles of effective evaluation practice.Community partners are not reimbursed as engagement occurs during their normal working hours.

DATA COLLECTION
Data is collected via mixed methods, including meetings, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, researcher notes and tracking sheets.Researcher notes include information such as points of engagement with community partners, methodological discussion points and outcomes, a reflexive log of personal reflections and insights, and any potentially impactful events (Lincoln & Guba 1985).Reflexive journaling is designed to facilitate greater researcher insights and understandings ( Janesick 1999), and will give research partner(s) the ability to document needs, barriers and enablers throughout the project.Community partners will also complete questionnaires, which are discussed in detail below.

POSITIONALITY
As co-authors, our ontological (i.e.social constructionist, participatory) and related epistemological orientations will inevitably impact project design and arising interpretations because constructionism is an interpretivist ontological paradigm in which realities are intersubjective and relative, and are co-constructed through dynamic social processes (Berger & Luckmann 1967;Merriam & Brockett 2007).As Overton (2017;p. 1209) puts it, through a social constructionist lens, 'we come to know what is real through our shared interaction with the environment and the others who share that environment with us, at different moments in our time'.All co-authors have previously engaged in co-design within community-based settings: six of us hold doctoral-level qualifications, five of us identify as holding lived experience of an eating disorder or caring for someone with one, three of us identify as coming from non-White backgrounds, three of us are early-career researchers, four of us are psychologists, and two of us identify as being queer.
Community-based participatory research seems imbued with constructivist beliefs in which knowledge and meaning are co-created through collaborative and social processes (Peralta & Murphy 2016), highlighting the role of power in study design and decision-making (Corrigan & Oppenheim 2023).To encourage awareness of how unique backgrounds, biases and assumptions may impact project processes and outcomes, we prioritise reflexive practices, such as engaging in reflexive journaling and supervision (Banks et al. 2013).

Procedure
Our project will unfold over four stages (see Figure 1).Each stage includes its own meeting guide and questionnaire to assess individual, interpersonal, community, organisational and systemic factors impacting

R&E (see Appendices)
. Community partners will be invited to attend all meetings throughout the project period, which will be facilitated by the primary research partner.The duration of each meeting will be 90 minutes unless otherwise noted and may be undertaken either in person at the EDV office or via videoconferencing.and 7).The purpose of this stage is two-fold (a) to build knowledge and skills around R&E among community partners through knowledge-sharing (e.g.ethical considerations such as informed consent, steps involved in program evaluation, gathering/analysing data via mixed methods); and (b) to collaboratively develop R&E practices and materials to be integrated into service delivery.
We will follow the NSW Treasury's (2013) R&E guidelines, making adaptations to available templates (see Appendix 6 for developed templates).This will include developing a program logic, identifying evaluation questions, developing R&E materials and ascertaining staff responsibilities.Prior to implementation, community partners will complete a questionnaire assessing their experiences of co-designing R&E practices (e.g.'Overall, how have you found the co-design process of working with others in your team at EDV and a researcher in developing a plan to integrate research and evaluation for the Carer Coaching Program?' See Appendix 8).

Stage 3: Implementation and Monitoring of Co-designed Research and Evaluation Practices
During Stage 3, community partners will implement co-designed R&E practices into service delivery.Monthly meetings will be held, offering opportunities for community and research partners to share experiences and learnings, reflect on the partnership, and discuss impacts, challenges, and any adaptations made to R&E practices (see Appendix 9).Community partners will additionally complete questionnaires assessing implementation and feasibility issues.'Have there been any factors that you think may have influenced (positively or negatively) your or your team's engagement with research and evaluation of the Carer Coaching Program?'; see Appendix 10).

Stage 4: Sharing the Learnings of Co-designing and Engaging in Research and Evaluation
In Stage 4, community and research partners will identify and reflect on the learnings arising from the project.An evaluation meeting will be held with service providers to provide the opportunity to discuss experiences, perceptions and feasibility/sustainability of integrating research and evaluation into service delivery (see Appendix 11).Community partners will also complete an evaluation questionnaire (Appendix 12).We aim to share our experiences and learnings through academic publications, presentations, conferences and newsletters.

DATA ANALYSIS
To describe the process and outcomes of the project, selected feasibility and implementation constructs will be assessed, such as acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality and integration (Bowen et al. 2009;Pearson et al. 2020).Data will be analysed using mixed methods, including thematic analysis of meetings/ semi-structured interview transcripts, and triangulated with open-ended questionnaire responses and with quantitative data.Meetings/semi-structured interviews will be audio-recorded through the University of Sydney's Zoom and will be later deidentified.Transcripts will be auto-generated through Zoom artificial intelligence software and manually verified for accuracy by co-authors.
Thematic analysis is a qualitative method for identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting themes found within a dataset (Braun & Clarke 2006).It offers a highly flexible approach, providing a rich, yet complex, account of data.This method is intended to yield themes that will provide a more detailed analysis through a combination of inductive and deductive approaches to coding those themes.Analysis will be guided by the six-step thematic analysis framework outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006) which are: (1) familiarising with the data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) defining and naming themes and ( 6) producing the report.While theme saturation may be used by examining repeating emergent themes (see Fusch & Ness 2015), we recognise the limitations of this method, particularly when undertaking reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke 2021).

ADVERSE EVENTS
Community partners will be asked to communicate any adverse events they may experience to the primary research partner.Participants of the Carer Coaching Program will be asked to communicate any adverse events to the Carer Coaches, where they will be managed according to existing organisational protocols.Any adverse events will be reported to the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee.

Discussion
This article describes community-based participatory protocol to collaboratively plan for and attempt to build and pilot R&E practices within an Australian community-based eating disorder service through a partnership between service providers and academic researchers.This pragmatic approach jointly aims to address the need for greater R&E within the eating disorder sector, particularly at the community level, while simultaneously identifying features which may assist with facilitating a widespread ecosystem of sustainable, reflexive and equitable R&E practices across the sector into the future.
Community services are a vital source of local knowledge and innovation, yet under-resourcing of R&E activities hinders much needed cross-sectoral translation, policy change and advancement in care.Uplifting R&E at the community level holds several important implications for communities, organisations and systems.First, creating feedback opportunities will help to give voice to those who engage with services to shape organisational policies and procedures, and improve service delivery.Second, establishing routine data collection practices will help us to identify and better understand more diverse eating disorder experiences and recovery trajectories in the community.Third, this process may help inform engagement strategies with marginalised and under-supported groups, particularly First Nations peoples and those from diverse cultural, sexual and gender non-conforming backgrounds, as well as those who identify as men (National Eating Disorders Collaboration 2023; State of Victoria 2023).Fourth, evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of programs/services will inform funding, scalability and the translation of offerings across services and beyond them to better support community member needs.
Importantly, due to limited resources, our project was restricted by minimal involvement of external lived experience advisers who were unaffiliated with EDV, as well as a relatively short (12-month) project period.While recent research has outlined adaptations for shorter-term community-academic partnerships (Radonic et al. 2023), future projects should prioritise engagement of diverse lived experience perspectives to promote greater equity, community ownership and responsivity.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article to outline a plan to connect service providers and academic researchers in an attempt to build R&E within a community eating disorder setting.Through community-engaged methodology, we aim to uplift community service providers to be able to systematically capture, leverage and share data created on the ground through a bottom-up, community-centric approach, while offering research-specific guidance and capabilities.By longitudinally studying the real-time processes and outcomes of partnering to establish and embed R&E praxis within service delivery, we hope that rising insights and learnings will help guide and shape future efforts to feasibly build equitable, reflexive and responsive R&E practices and systems.This will ultimately have implications for enhancing policy, advocacy, prevention and care frameworks to better support people affected by eating disorders and improve the systems around them.

Concluding Thoughts
The preparation and publication of protocols involving pragmatic research methodology like ours presents several benefits.By nature, protocols outline intended processes to achieve certain outcomes based on theoretical underpinnings and decisions made by authoring teams.The early stages of a project's lifespan offer important knowledge and insights, such as how decisions are made and by whom, and the surrounding contexts which influence how projects are designed, undertaken and arising knowledges ultimately shared.
In writing protocols, authors may gain more clarity around project intentions, processes, gaps and limitations to ultimately strengthen research rigour.They may regularly revisit and reflect on their original plan during and following projects to scaffold insights around what worked, what didn't, what was learned and what could be changed.This can inform recommendations and advance future research efforts.In tandem, readers may benefit by having access to diverse ways of thinking, resources and structured methodological guidance to spur and enhance their own thinking, processes and recommendations.This specifically addresses the need for greater methodological guidance in undertaking co-design processes in the context of academic partnerships (Benz et al. 2024).Additionally, this could be particularly helpful for early career researchers who may often find themselves within community-based, not-for-profit contexts with limited supports.
Finally, avenues to share pragmatic protocols of community-based research such through open access journals are essential to allow translation of these important knowledges and improve how research is undertaken in the future.This is central to building an ecosystem of accountable, transparent and equitable research praxis, and is only possible by those within the academic community who value, prioritise and continually advocate for greater access and equity.My job is to guide our discussion today, it will be quite interactive and everyone's perspectives are valued.It's important to know that today isn't about judging but learning.We all bring knowledge, skills and experience.You'll share your learnings of working on the ground from a community perspective, and I'll bring my background and learnings from a research perspective so we can work together to make change.I'll keep an eye on time so you don't have to.We'll go for about an hour and a half.What is important to consider to feel more engaged in this process?
Acceptability Practicality 17.For the following questions, please rate either: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neither agree/disagree), 4 (agree) to 5 (strongly agree): a. I think it is important to evaluate our programs and services at EDV b.I think there is a need for our programs and services to be Please share any additional comments or points that you might have, including things that might not have been covered in our meeting.

Feasibility Construct
Provide recap of previous meeting and key take-aways.Today will be our first of two planning meetings and we will talk about why we're doing the evaluation, who it'll be for, what information we'll need to find out and where we'll get this from, as well as how we'll know whether we're achieving our goals.In developing an evaluation plan, we'll do something called a "program logic".Program logics are often done in program planning but can be really helpful at any stage and can help in planning an evaluation.I will send you a summary of discussion points via email.
[Ask people to briefly share their reflections/after thoughts from Meeting 1] 1. What would you like the evaluation of the Carer Coaching Program to ultimately do?What is the purpose?
2. Who will the evaluation findings be for?Who might this impact?Thinking about yourself, your team, others at EDV, the sector, community members, policy makers, funders.
3. What are the questions you/they would like to have answered?What will you/they want to know?These will represent our evaluation questions.Prompt: process, outcome questions.
4. What information/data is needed to answer the evaluation questions?What will be realistic and feasible?We will discuss this further in our next meeting.d) What is needed to achieve the outcomes (e.g., resources)?Inputs.

So now we
6. What does program "success" look like?How will you know you have achieved it?What data that can tell you that?
7. What do you want to see at the end of this process and why?Prompt: for example, a report, publication?Ask about the long-term vision for evaluating the Carer Coaching Program.
8. Is there anything you would like to add or share?
Following the end of the meeting, Sumedha to circulate services providers summary of discussion topics.

Draft Evaluation Plan -EDV Carer Coaching Program
Why are we evaluating it?
Who are these findings for?How will they be used?
Key evaluation questions: What information is important to collect? 2. How will you screen people who express interest in participating to confirm eligibility?Currently, there are brief screening questions on the online sign-up page.
Who will be responsible for monitoring this? 3. What could be a good way to document outcomes of screening, and enrolments and withdrawals?Who could be responsible for this?Questionnaires: 4. What do you think would be a suitable duration and timeframe for project participants to complete questionnaires (e.g., 20 minutes within one week of being sent)? 5. What might be a good way of monitoring when to send these out and following up on incomplete responses?Who would be best to manage this?Documenting Changes/Adaptions: 6. Changes and adaptations may be made throughout the project.A "Change Log" can be used to document these from both of our ends.How could we collaborate on this?
The following questions will ask you about the co-designed research and evaluation plan/processes for the Carer Coaching Program.Practicality 12.For the following questions, please rate either 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neither agree/disagree), 4 (agree), 5 (strongly agree), 6 (Not Applicable). 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neither agree/disagree), 4 (agree), 5 (strongly agree), 6 (Not Applicable  o.I believe that funding is important in undertaking research and evaluation.p.I believe that EDV has the capacity to integrate this research framework within its services.q.I believe that research practices like this can be integrated into other areas of EDV.r.I believe the benefits outweighed the costs of undertaking this research and evaluation 3. Please list the things that were gained (if any) through this process, with reference to yourself, your team, and the organisation, community, sector etc.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Project Stages to Build and Integrate Research and Evaluation within a Community-based Eating Disorder Setting through Academic Partnership

Stage 1 :
Exploration of Research and Evaluation Needs and Capacity, and Preparing for Co-Design During Stage 1, community and research partners will engage in an initial meeting to identify the needs, capacity, capabilities, motivation, expected outcomes and other enablers/challenges of undertaking and implementing R&E within service delivery (see Appendix 4).Community partners will complete a questionnaire involving quantitative ratings and qualitative questions around R&E capacity, capability and building for example, 'Do you see any benefits or advantages of doing research and program evaluation?' and 'What are your thoughts on collaborating with a researcher in designing and undertaking research and program evaluation?' (see Appendix 5).Stage 2: Collaborative Development of Research and Evaluation Practices and Materials Building on responses gained during Stage 1, R&E practices and materials for the Carer Coaching Program will be co-designed in Stage 2 via shared decision-making through meetings and iterative reviews by community and research partners (see Appendices 6 past and present.Sovereignty was never ceded.The authors wish to extend their thanks to: Dr Lauren Bruce, Dr Charlotte Young, Dr Gai Moore, A/Prof Yvette Miller, Ms Jess Tone, Dr Sabina Vatter, Dr Shu Hwa Ong, Dr Frank Muscara, Dr Melinda McPherson, Ms Rachel Knight, Prof Steven Allender and Prof Helen Skouteris for their ideas and suggestions in shaping the current project.There is no off-label or investigational use in this study.for joining today.As you know, we'll be working together over the next couple of months.The aim of our work together is really to get a sense of what you find important and meaningful in your work, and to draw on your knowledge, experience and strengths to support you in doing what you do so you can do more of it, and so that other people can learn from this.We'll talk more about this a bit later but this is essentially what evaluation is about. evaluated c.I believe that the culture at EDV values research and program evaluation d.I believe that undertaking research and program evaluation would align with EDV's goals and values e.I believe EDV has the capacity to integrate research and program evaluation for its programs/services f.I think engaging in research and program evaluation will cost EDV money g.I believe the benefits will outweigh the costs of integrating research and program evaluation practices at EDV h.I have enough skills to undertake research and program evaluation i.I feel confident in undertaking research and evaluation j.I have good knowledge about what research and program evaluation involves k.I feel motivated to build my knowledge and skills around research and program evaluation l.I think it is important for me/my team to collaborate with a researcher in undertaking research and evaluation m.I believe partnering with a researcher will build my skills and knowledge around research and evaluation n.I feel willing to collaborate with my team and a researcher in codesigning research and evaluation o.I believe collaborating with a researcher will ultimately help me in my work following questions relate to the Carer Coaching Program.Please rate from: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neither agree/disagree), 4 (agree) to 5 (strongly agree): a.I think it is important to evaluate the Carer Coaching Program b.Evaluating the Carer Coaching Program will be beneficial for the community I work with c. Evaluating the Carer Coaching Program will be beneficial for me (e.g., my work role, personally) d.Evaluating the Carer Coaching Program will be beneficial for EDV generally e.I feel motivated to integrate research and evaluation for the Carer Coaching Program Practicality Integration Acceptability How does it try to change this?Activities/outputs.
a. I feel satisfied that the developed research/evaluation plan and processes for the Carer Coaching Program will meet its goals Acceptability Practicality, Self-efficacy Context b.I think the developed research and program evaluation is practical and realistic for service providers c.I think it will be manageable to undertake the planned research and evaluation with my existing workload d.I think it will be feasible for consumers who undertake the Carer Coaching Program to engage in the research and program evaluation as planned e.I feel likely to undertake research and evaluation as planned f.I think my team is likely to undertake research and evaluation as planned g.I think my team is motivated to undertake the research and evaluation procedures as planned h.I feel motivated to undertake the research and evaluation steps/procedures as planned i.I have enough skills to undertake research and program evaluation j.I feel confident in undertaking research and program evaluation k.I have good knowledge about what research and program evaluation involves l.I believe EDV has the capacity to integrate research and program evaluation for its programs/services m.I believe that the culture at EDV values research and program evaluation n.I believe the benefits outweigh the costs of undertaking research and program evaluation practices at EDV o.I have felt engaged and involved in the process of co-designing research and evaluation for the Carer Coaching Program p.I think it has been beneficial for me to engage in co-designing a research and evaluation plan and processes q.I think it has been beneficial for my team to engage in co-designing a research and evaluation plan and processes r.Partnering with a researcher has built my skills and knowledge in research and program evaluation 13.Please provide any further comments or feedback you would like to share.8. How have you found the experience of partnering with a research partner throughout this process?Implementation 9.For the following questions, please rate either:

Final comments 14 .
Is there anything else you'd like to comment or share?10: open-ended text; Question 2: multiple choice.Construct 1.If there have been any impacts (positive/negative) of engaging in research and evaluation of the Carer Coaching Program, please describe them?Practicality 2.Thinking back over the process of developing and integrating research and evaluation, please rate them as: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neither agree nor disagree), 4 (agree), 5 (strongly agree), 6 (not applicable).a.I believe the developed research and evaluation processes were successful in achieving the goal of evaluating the Carer Coaching Program.feel satisfied with how the research and evaluation was undertaken.c.I feel capable in engaging in research and evaluation of the Program.d.I felt supported in engaging in the research.e.I believe it was manageable balancing research engagement and my other workload.f.I have good knowledge of what research and program evaluation involves (e.g. the purpose and the steps involved).g.I have sufficient skills in undertaking research and program evaluation (i.e. the ability to undertake what is involved).h.I believe research and evaluation of the Carer Coaching Program can be sustained without involvement from a researcher(s).i.I believe research and evaluation of programs and services at EDV can be undertaken without involvement from a researcher(s) j.I feel confident in designing and undertaking research and evaluation.k.I believe continuing this research framework beyond the grant will be sustainable?l.I believe it was beneficial for EDV to research and evaluate the Carer Coaching Program.m.I believe that research and evaluation of the Carer Coaching Program is needed for the caregiving community.n.I believe that I and my team had the time and resources to integrate this research framework within the Carer Coaching Program.
You might like to think about yourself, your team, EDV, the community, the sector or broader society.
1. What are you passionate about in the work you do?What about your work gives you meaning? 2. Build from responses to above.How do you know whether you're doing this well?How do you learn to do it better and how do you share this knowledge? Sumedha to chat about 'research' and 'evaluation'.about what you you're trying to do and help you frame this knowledge so we can share it with others and so it has more impact.Acceptability Demand Practicality 3. What might be some motivators for doing research and evaluation?How might it help?Thinking about your work, your team, EDV, the community you work with, the sector, society more broadly.4. Are there any de-motivators or things that might make research and evaluation challenging?Thinking about personal, organisational, policy and social factors both within and outside of EDV. 7. Have you had any past experiences with research and evaluation?How can learn from this to help you feel more engaged in this process?8. Finally, is there anything more you'd like to share?Appendix 5 Stage 1 Questionnaire (Service Providers) [Questions 6-16: free-text response; Questions 17 & 18 multiple choice.]Construct Thank you for completing this questionnaire.Your responses are deeply valued so please be as open and honest as you can be.Please enter your unique ID (please contact Sumedha if you are unsure): ______ 1.How long (months, years) have you been employed at EDV? 2. Do you identify as holding lived experience?o Yes -as a carer of someone with an eating disorder o Yes -as someone with a personal history of an eating disorder o No o I'd prefer not to answer 3. How do you identify your gender?_________ 4. Have you had any experience undertaking research?o Yes o No o Not sure 5. Have you had any experience undertaking program evaluation? o Yes o No o Not sure The following questions are open-ended to give you the chance to respond freely.This is an opportunity for you to share your perspectives, knowledge and experiences.6.What aspects of your work role do you find meaningful?9.At the moment, how do you feel about doing research and program evaluation?Acceptability Self-efficacy 10.How do you see the findings of research and program evaluation (e.g., evaluation findings from the Carer Coaching Program) being used?Who might this affect?You might like to think about what might be needed, or what might need to happen to feel more capable and willing to engage.What might this look like practically e.g., time, money, training staff in research and program evaluation, employing an internal researcher, partnerships with external researchers.Practicality 15.Please comment on the costs and benefits of engaging in research and evaluation specifically for the Carer Coaching Program.Are costs internal or external to EDV, or both?Practicality Expansion 16.What are your thoughts on collaborating with a researcher in designing and undertaking research and program evaluation?
've talked about what questions people will need, let's now talk about how we'll organise our thoughts to prepare this case or argument.A program logic model is framework that describes how a program tries to address a problem.It looks at what the issue is, how we try to address it and what we need to support us in doing this.[Researcher to provide service providers with Program Logic handout]

Additional script for researcher use only: Informed Consent Procedure
Show draft explanatory statement and consent form.What would be a good way of gaining informed consent from participants?b.Changes to recruitment materials and registration.Would the registration form need to be adapted to include details of the project? 1.It's important people who are interested in the Carer Coaching Program are aware of what the research involves, and willingly give their consent to taking part.In research we use an "explanatory statement" which includes details of why the research is being done, what's involved in taking part and any risks.Then, people complete a written consent form in which they agree to a number of statements.What could be a good way for people to access the explanatory statement and sign the consent form (e.g., online form, clarified in a phone call)?Currently, there is an online sign-up page on the EDV website.Should we amend this and if so, what would we need to change? research.

Screening and Documentation
6. Are there any factors (internal/external) that you think might impact you/your team undertaking research and evaluation as planned?You might want to think about personal factors, organisational factors, contextual factors etc.
). a.I have good knowledge of what research and program evaluation involves (e.g. the purpose, the steps involved) What might influence the likelihood of you/your team engaging in research and evaluation for the Carer Coaching Program beyond the grant deadline?10.Using the experiences of this project, how could research and evaluation become integrated into other programs or services at EDV? 11.What is needed and needs to happen to share research and evaluation findings as you were hoping to? 12.What do you see as being the next steps for research and program evaluation at EDV? 13.How have you found the process of collaborating with a researcher?Prompt: Is there anything that's been gained?Would you change anything about the process?
Practicality 4. If there were any costs of engaging in the research and evaluation (e.g.impacts on your workload, financial costs), please describe them.Please describe any ways that learnings gained throughout the process of building and integrating research and evaluation could be used across EDV into the future?6.What resources might be needed to achieve this?What needs to happen?What was your experience of working with a research partner?You might like to comment on things that you learned and enjoyed, or did not enjoy.Please detail if there was anything you would change about the process of co-designing and embedding research and evaluation in the Carer Coaching Program, and why you would change this.