Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising this issue. I acknowledge that it is an issue she quite rightly raises on a regular basis. I assure her that I wish to show commitment to enhancing specialist services for eating disorders, including improved access and shorter waiting lists. I accept that this is an issue in every community across Ireland. I also agree that there has historically been a lack of publicly funded services for people with eating disorders in Ireland. We are starting from a very low base as regards the record of investment. However, I point to the fact that the new model of care for the national clinical programme for eating disorders in 2018, which the Deputy has referenced, marks a significant milestone and provides clarity as to how we intend to deliver and design our services. It also provides a list for Government as regards initiatives that quite rightly need to be funded.

Research shows that the most effective treatment setting for eating disorders is in the community. I will come back to the point the Deputy has made about treatment outside the community in a moment. It is right to say that a small number of people, mainly those with restrictive eating disorders, will require inpatient care for stabilisation and for other reasons. However, 90% of eating disorder services are delivered within the community. The HSE works hard to meet the needs of people with eating disorders in a setting most appropriate to their needs. This might be through the community eating disorder teams, beds in the public system, specialist beds with private providers that are funded by the HSE, which the Deputy acknowledged, or, on occasion, the treatment abroad scheme, although we definitely need to reach a point at which we can move away from that.

Based on multidisciplinary community teams, the national clinical programme for eating disorders is now being implemented on a phased basis across the country. There are now 11 teams, comprising six adult teams and five child and adolescent mental health service teams. Six of these teams only started last year. I say that to push back slightly on the suggestion of a lack of progress. We started six of these teams in the last year. More than €8 million has been allocated to the national clinical programme since its establishment and approximately 100 posts have been funded through that programme. There are now just over 80 eating disorder clinicians in the country. This number includes ten consultant psychiatrists.

Adults who have an eating disorder diagnosis and require inpatient care can be referred to any of the HSE's acute inpatient mental health approved centres around the country. Eating disorders disproportionately affect a relatively young section of our population. There are currently 20 dedicated eating disorder beds across the four CAMHS inpatient units. As of 23 April, there was nobody waiting for access in that area. Access to services is increasing. Twice as many assessments were conducted last year as were conducted the year before. That is 449 assessments versus 227. As part of additional funding secured under the last budget, a number of new posts will now be available to support youth mental health service provision and development. This includes specific new posts to support eating disorders.

On St. Vincent's specifically, community healthcare organisation, CHO, 6 has three dedicated beds for adults requiring inpatient care and these are based in St. Vincent's. The Deputy is entirely correct that the need for additional inpatient beds has been identified in the model of care and in other policy documents. A recent HSE mental health bed capacity review included eating disorder beds. It is intended that the number of dedicated adult beds will increase in line with the model of care recommendation to get us to 20 adult inpatient beds.

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