Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the case of a 13-year-old girl in Dundalk who has been in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for approximately seven weeks. She is under the care of CAMHS and Louth Meath mental health services, which have done all they can to help her. It is an acute situation. She has what I will call an eating disorder, possibly combined with other factors. She has been awaiting acute residential care, which has been promised but not delivered. She was released from hospital on two previous occasions. Once, she was returned in hypoglycaemic shock and, on the other occasion, she was brought back to hospital because she refused point-blank to eat.

This child's situation has got worse and worse and it really needs a solution. She has also engaged in self-harm. She and her family are particularly worried about her health and why it is taking so long to get the care she needs. Deputy Ward has raised in the House the issue of the lack of services for people with eating disorders and related issues. The situation of my constituent must be dealt with. I left it a number of weeks before raising it as I understood her case was being dealt with at the highest levels. I am now at my wit's end. The situation must be dealt with as quickly as possible.

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