Ms Kathy Downes:

We see that acceleration from our services perspective. If I look at the 2019 figures we might have had 4,100 people who would have been supported by us and in 2021 that would have been 9,000 so it has nearly doubled. Within those figures I am leaving out the pillar support, which doubled as well. I would think that Covid-19 and the ensuing restrictions were like a perfect storm for eating disorders, and particularly so when one thinks of children and adolescents. The inability to go to school, the sense of not being able to be with peers, and the focus that there might have been around food, including baking, were all factors. There was a sense, which we saw reflected in our services, that people in lockdown almost needed to become their best selves when they came out. We saw in the first wave that there was an increase in the services that we thought might relax but it did not do so. It kept going and, therefore, some of our highest figures are from 2021 around the time of the third wave of Covid from Christmas to April and May of that year when the figures were very high. Perhaps Ms Parsons wants to add to that and discuss her sense of Covid.