Dr. Brendan Doody:

If you look at eating disorders, the vast majority of young people presenting with them are treated in the community and we have seen the figures in our specialist community eating disorder services increase hugely in recent years. If you take 2019 for example, our specialist community eating disorder team had 47 referrals and in 2021 it had 197. There has been a huge increase in the number of people presenting with eating disorders specifically. The vast majority of eating disorders are treated in the community and a small number will require inpatient admission. As one would expect, one of the reasons for inpatient admission is that treatment in the community has not been effective. Young people who are admitted will be admitted because they require the treatment package that can be delivered in an inpatient setting. Some young people will re-present, given the severity of their conditions. The children who will be admitted are more likely to have severe and chronic disorders. A proportion will be readmitted but the majority of our admissions will be one-off admissions.

Inpatient services are dependent on the availability of community services to provide that level of intensive input at community level. We are fortunate at Linn Dara that we have developed the specialist community eating disorder service, which is on the Cherry Orchard campus. We work closely with that service and we transition young people. When there are services in the community, readmission will be less likely.