Dr. Imelda Whyte:

Regarding the increased threshold in the proposed legislation, I work in CAMHS and I am mindful of young people with eating disorders. Within my service we have experienced a 300% increase in the presentation of young people with eating disorders during the past year. That is undoubtedly linked to the pandemic. Those young people are the cohort; people with a chronic illness. They may not be at imminent risk but they are at risk of suffering chronic malnutrition and without intervention and treatment in an inpatient facility, their prognosis would be significantly worse. With the higher threshold, those types of cases will potentially miss out on getting the care and treatment they need.