SUPPORTS FOR EATING DISORDERS FALL SHORT
Tsunami of new cases reported since pandemic
THERE is a lack of services to help children and adults battling eating disorders following a “tsunami” of referrals after the pandemic.
A RTE Prime Time special found that despite the implementation of a new model of care in 2018 aimed at establishing multidisciplinary teams, nationwide gaps in service still remain.
It had been hoped there would be 16 service teams in place but at present only 11 are operational.
The programme also revealed there were no Child & Adolescence Mental Health Services or Child and Adolescent eating disorder teams in the Northwest,
Midlands, or in the Mid-west. Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Fiona Mcnicholas told Prime Time: “Post Covid, what we saw was an increased referrals of eating disorder internationally. They referred to it as a tsunami of eating disorders, and we saw that again here in Ireland.”
The HSE only operates four CAMHS inpatient psychiatric units, one in Cork, one in Galway and two in Dublin.
Lauren Gaffney developed an eating disorder in her early teens and was diagnosed with anorexia in transition year.
Now 27, she is being seen by her GP and a dietician, but struggling to get the help she says she needs because her Body Mass Index (BMI) is too low.
She said: “I’m unwell, I need support, but yet I’m not at a heavy enough position in order to receive support.”
Harriet Parsons of Bodywhys said: “I don’t think the public have a recognition that eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder.
“The figure for mortality rate with females with anorexia is 200 times the suicide rate for females.”