In the first episode of Co-Produced, hosts Adia and Lauren are joined by Dimitri Chubinidze, Postdoctoral Research Associate with the PEACE and PEACE+ Pathway, to explore how inpatient eating disorder treatment is lived, felt, and made meaningful through the senses.
The episode centres on Dimitri’s recent study, conducted in collaboration with clinical and academic colleagues, titled The Sensory Landscape and Embodied Experiences in Anorexia Nervosa Treatment: An Inpatient Sensory Ethnography - a year-long ethnographic project carried out within an adult inpatient eating disorder unit. The research examines how sound, light, space, texture, smell, and everyday clinical routines shape patients’ lived experiences of treatment, with particular attention to individuals with co-occurring neurodivergent conditions.
This work has been shortlisted for the NIHR Maudsley BRC Culture, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI) Impact Award, recognising research that demonstrates meaningful impact in advancing more inclusive and equitable practice.
Using co-produced, sensory-attuned methods - including sensory mapping, guided reflection, and AI-assisted visual elicitation - the study reveals how treatment environments can unintentionally echo core features of anorexia nervosa itself. Feelings of entrapment, loss of agency, and emotional ambivalence emerge not only from the illness, but from the sensory and material conditions of care.
In conversation, Dimitri reflects on:
- why sensory experience matters in eating disorder treatment
- how inpatient care can feel both supportive and overwhelming at the same time
- the importance of co-production with lived experience contributors
- how PEACE+ is expanding to include ADHD alongside autism
- future directions, including virtual and extended-reality clinics for neurodivergent-affirming care
Together, the episode invites listeners to consider how listening differently - to bodies, senses, and lived experience - can help shape care that is more humane, accessible, and responsive to neurodiversity.
