Patients forced to travel outside NI for eating disorder treatment

There are no areas in Northern Ireland that provide intensive community and day treatment services for children and adults with eating disorders, according to the charity Beat.

Its report also found that 26 patients with an eating disorder had to travel outside of Northern Ireland to receive treatment between 2017 and 2022.

Nicola Armstrong from Beat called this “unacceptable”.

She said: “Ensuring that people with eating disorders can access proper care while continuing to live at home is essential to ensuring their speedy recovery and should be a priority for the NI Executive.

“Recovering from an eating disorder can be a lengthy and challenging process – people shouldn’t have the added anxieties of booking flights, missing work or university or arranging childcare to contend with.

“Intensive community and day treatments have been proven to be very effective in reducing the frequency and duration of hospital stays and mean patients can stay in familiar surroundings with their support network while receiving treatment.”

Eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, affect between 18,000 and 20,000 people in Northern Ireland, according to Eating Disorders Association NI.

Beat said people suffering from these disorders should be able to access at least four change-focused contacts for at least three hours per week.

This includes supervised meal support, and the charity has said that the service should be flexible to meet the needs of the patient.

The absence of these services is leading to avoidable hospital admissions, according to the report.

It warns inpatient hospital stays are restrictive with “little added therapeutic benefit”.

Professor Siobhan O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Champion, said: “Eating disorders are very serious, but treatable conditions, and it is vital that evidence-based interventions are available to all those affected in Northern Ireland.

“Our Mental Health Strategy includes a commitment to improving services and providing specialist treatments to all those affected.

“Unfortunately progress on implementing the ctrategy has been slow, and the workforce challenges and funding pressures have resulted in an unacceptable situation whereby people who are very ill need to make lengthy journeys to receive specialist care.

“I urge the Executive to find a way to fully fund the delivery of the Mental Health Strategy, including the workforce plan so that people with eating disorders get timely, effective treatment.”

Community care allows those suffering from an eating disorder to receive care while living at home, rather than staying in hospital day and night.

Beat has found that this form of treatment can be provided at a much lower cost than inpatient care.

The charity argued that the savings could then be re-invested in early intervention.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, you can contact Beat’s Northern Ireland helpline by calling 0808 801 0434.