Eating disorder service gap
Deputy Richmond describes a young person caught between child and adult services for eating-disorder care. Minister of State Butler says the age-transition problem is well known and oversight committees are examining the issue.
I raise a difficult case on which I have been working all week. It relates to a constituent who simply has not been able to access particular services for an eating disorder. I give thanks for the efforts of the office of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and even more welcome has been the wider funding. The issue is being resolved. However, this is a clear case of an individual and a family who have been caught between the stools. The person in question is over 16 but under 18. There has been a failure within the health service to apply an element of flexibility, common sense and joined-up thinking.
As I said, this case has now, thankfully, been resolved, largely due to the efforts of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. However, there are dozens if not hundreds of young people throughout this country who are facing these barriers every day. We need to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. We come across issues all the time when somebody ages out at 18 and transfers from child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, to general adult mental health supports. We know the services for eating disorders are not as robust for adults as they are for under-18s. We have seen a spike in eating disorders in the past two years, especially for young girls aged 13 to 15. The national implementation and monitoring committee is the oversight body for Sharing the Vision. A CAMHS sub-committee has been set up and it will look at the age groups and examine whether CAMHS should continue treating its service users until they are 21, 23 or 25. We know, for example, Jigsaw offers supports to people between the ages of 12 and 25. It is something we are keeping under review.
It will take a while. If inpatient supports are provided, it would not be feasible to have a 13-year-old or 14-year-old girl with an eating disorder on the same corridor as a young man of 21 with psychosis. We will have to look at many elements of this issue. We will address it under the mental health Bill I will be bringing to the Dáil next year.