Claire Kerrane
Question:389. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health if she will meet with an organisation (details supplied). [18187/25]
View answerThursday, 10 April 2025
Questions (389)
Written answers
In my role as Minister I regularly meet with advocates for improved eating disorder services and those with lived experience of eating disorders, including groups such as CARED Ireland. Last May I met with CARED Ireland to discuss eating disorders services, and in recent weeks I held further such meetings with other groups and advocates.
In my role as Minister for Mental Health I meet with people and families with lived experience of eating disorders to better understand the issue and ensure that the improvements we are making to services are responding to the needs that have been shared with me. My Departmental officials and HSE senior management, including the HSE CEO, also meet with advocates with lived experience of eating disorders as part of this work.
It is a key priority of mine to continue to make progress on improving eating disorder services to better meet the needs of people with an eating disorder, including supports for families and friends who are also affected by their loved one's illness. I share the objective of CARED Ireland to make Ireland a centre of excellence for eating disorder services.
With that objective in mind, I recently met with the HSE Mental Health Services National Clinical Advisor and Group Lead, and Clinical Lead for Eating Disorders, to discuss priorities for the ongoing development of community and inpatient eating disorder services. We also discussed the planned review of the Model of Care for Eating Disorders. The outcomes of this review will inform eating disorder service developments into the future, and I will be ensuring that those with lived experience of eating disorders and all groups and advocates are supported to engage with this review and have their views heard and acted upon.
Both myself as Minister and my Department are steadfastly committed to working with the HSE to improving access to care, and quality of care, for people with eating disorders. I continue with my officials to engage with the HSE on an ongoing basis on actionable steps, with the objective of delivering real improvements in the quality of care for people with eating disorders.
I expect that we will make significant progress in enhancing eating disorder services for children and adults nationwide in the coming months, as a number of key pieces of work are underway.
The HSE are currently conducting a review of adult bed capacity for specialist eating disorders beds, including a review of data on bed usage in HSE acute hospital, HSE approved centres, private placements and treatment aboard. The HSE will make recommendations for a future plan regarding number and locations of adult eating disorders beds. It is intended that this plan will be provided by the HSE to myself as Minister by the end of June 2025. This is an important step in ensuring that we are meeting the needs of people with eating disorders who require the support of an inpatient service.
Furthermore, under Budget 2025, I secured funding for the expansion and enhancement of the National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorder services, through the addition of two new teams. These will be a CAMHS Eating Disorder team for HSE Midwest, and an adult team for HSE Dublin and Midlands.
As Minister, I look forward to continuing my engagement with the HSE this year in order to make progress on delivering enhanced eating disorders services for all those who require support.