ABSTRACT
As this book makes clear, involving carers in the treatment of eating disorders is of important mutual benefit for the patient and their family. If we are to maximise its benefits, however, then we need an ethico-legal account of its integration into the current health-care system. This is because the western culture of individual autonomy and individual rights is a potential stumbling-block to carer involvement. Professionals have a well-established duty to preserve patient autonomy, which entails respecting the patient’s decisions about treatment (consent), including decisions concerning the communication of information about them (confidentiality). More broadly, this culture of respecting individual rights also entails a tendency to treat the individual in varying degrees of isolation from their social context. It is into this individualist culture that the carer involvement initiative has been introduced.
