In my thesis I focused on eating disorders, or rather on the attitudes of people with growing up problems who have experienced trauma or abuse towards eating and food, and how they feel about themselves. In my overview of the issues, I have focused on topics such as eating disorders, trauma and violence and abuse. I have written something in general about eating disorders, what forms we know, their causes, eating disorders as a result of violence or abuse, and the programmes available to people with eating disorders. In addition, I have outlined the types and consequences of childhood trauma, and I have presented violence and abuse, the difference between them, the forms and consequences of violence and abuse, and how children with growing up problems are exposed to all possible forms of violence and abuse. In my thesis I wanted to explore the attitudes of individuals with growing up problems who have experienced a traumatic event or abuse in childhood or later in life towards food and eating and to find out the influence of the institution on attitudes towards eating. In the empirical part, I then present the findings from the interview guide questions. The questions I asked are related to their views on eating, what role they think food plays for them, how they see themselves and how the traumatic event(s)/abuse(s) has affected their view of themselves and their eating. The sample of 8 users living in the Janez Levec Home is accidental, and I also interviewed a professional working in the Janez Levec Home. I have found that strong emotions or traumatic events or abuse experienced by the users have a significant impact on the change in eating behaviour of the users (more and less need for food, etc.), and for some of them, these events have also influenced the users' opinion of themselves. In addition, the institution's frameworks, in the area of nutrition, largely influence the users, limiting them. That is why I think it is very important to create or enable individuality for each individual within the institution. Social workers and other professionals can contribute to this through our work, by listening to users and taking into account their wishes, needs and goals. Various concepts and methods can help, e. g. a personal plan, risk analysis, etc. The results of the survey are useful because they help to understand the perspective of users with adolescent eating problems, shed light on their view of the role of the institution in eating, and at the same time highlight the importance of the topics that we need to pay more attention to when working with young people.
|
