‘Major reform is needed for anorexia help’
THE mum of a teen battling a serious eating disorder will stage multiple protests in sa bid to get major reforms to the health system.
Amy Hanley’s daughter Arabella was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa after over a year of being stuck on the waiting list for the HSE’S Child and Adult Mental Health Service.
By the time the 16-year-old was able to secure a spot in CAMHS, she had already started deteriorating and needed hospital care.
Amy staged a demonstration outside the Department of Health in November last year.
Now the Dublin mum wants to take her protest across Ireland with rallies planned in Dublin and Limerick during Eating Disorder Awareness Week in March.
PROTEST
Amy said: “[The protests] would maybe bring that bit more attention, because it’s not just a Dublin problem, it is a nationwide problem. The protest in November felt like a starter to bring attention to it.
“Now it’s election time so it’s a really important time to try and push that we need these changes.”
Amy believes Arabella’s condition would not have deteriorated to the extent of needing hospital care if she’d received early intervention.
She said: “I honestly feel like if they had caught it in the beginning, if they’d helped her in the beginning, that it would have never got to like the stage of inpatient.
“One of the main problems we encountered was the lack of connection and services.
“Because my daughter was reliant on an NG (nasogastric) tube, she got trapped in a children’s hospital with no mental health supports.
“None of the psychiatric facilities would accept her because she was reliant on the NG tube.”
“This has been a problem for so long that we just really want to get it fixed.”
■■The Eating Disorder Awareness Week protests will be taking place on March 2, in Dublin and Limerick.