Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I attended a briefing by Cared Ireland. It highlighted the long-running crisis in care, supports and services for people with eating disorders. We heard directly from a mother whose young teenage daughter is about to age out of the very small supports she has been getting as a child. These are supports that have, in her mother's words, kept her alive. We also heard from a mother whose daughter died almost two years ago because of her eating disorder and from a young woman living with an eating disorder who detailed her own experience in a system that has had absolutely nothing work right to support her. This is a system that put her into an adult psychiatric ward at the age of 16 and gave her a psychiatrist without any expertise in eating disorders. She also told us of remarks made to her to go to Africa and see the starving children and to just eat.

We really need to see training for all healthcare professionals on this. Cared Ireland came with some very specific asks and a clear message. It wants to see more inpatient beds. There are three beds in the State and there have been three for a very long time. There was a plan to open 20 new beds between 2018 and 2023 but they were never funded. Will the Government please fund these beds?

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