Occupational Therapy News OTnews February 2020 | Page 34

FEATURE EATING DISORDERS
The Yarn Bombing Project
Taking to the streets to raise awareness of the stigma of eating disorders
O
ccupational
therapists
are uniquely
placed to
empower patients to use their
skills as a means of expressing
their lived experiences.
The stigma surrounding mental
health is well known and this is still
true for people with eating disorders,
where stigmatisation is also associated with
greater severity of eating disorder symptoms
and can form a barrier to disclosure and help-
seeking (Bastian et al 2018; Doley et al 2016).
The patients at Riverdale Grange have been
participating in the Yarn Bombing Project as a way of
raising awareness for eating disorders.
Yarn bombing is a form of street art where objects
or structures are decorated with knitted and/or crocheted
material. Many of our patients participate in knitting and
crocheting as a therapeutic activity, which does not require high
energy levels and therefore does not spend valuable fuel.
At a low weight, our patients often feel cold and the bigger
the knitted or crochet piece gets, the warmer it keeps them as they
make it.
Many patients have never had a go at crochet or knitting before
admission to Riverdale, but the majority are discharged having made
a blanket or toy. It has been a great opportunity for skill sharing amongst
patients and staff.
‘Knit and natter’ groups were facilitated with both adult and adolescent
patients and crochet skills taught on a one-to-one basis by both staff and patients.
A shared sense of community was felt between all involved and the crocheting
continued outside of facilitated groups to ‘sit-downs’ after meals, and some staff
continued with their efforts at home.
The Yarn Bombing project had been on-going for several months and patients, families
and staff members collaborated on creating a bulk of blankets and scarves. The patients had
also written labels that aim to bust some myths formed around eating disorders and explain the
patient’s real experience, and were to be displayed with the crochet.
The initial hope was to encourage patients to have a non-confrontational means of expressing
themselves and that people passing by would read the quotes, take photographs, share the
message, and perhaps even encourage someone to reach out to someone else who might need help.
Even as the patients began putting up the yarn bombing, people stopped to ask what they were
doing. During the two-week period that the yarn bombing was exhibited, it began to be a way to have
difficult and previously avoided conversations.
34 OTnews February 2020
Photo by Nynne Schrøder on Unsplash