Throughout 2024 the National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders has continued build momentum in delivering eating disorder services with more children, adolescents and adults accessing specialist assessment and treatment than ever before. There are now 11 HSE community eating disorder teams in Ireland and a further 3 in recruitment for 2025. We have over 90 eating disorder clinicians across a variety of disciplines working in these teams. Our training programme and educational meetings for staff are a key priority so we can ensure that people with eating disorders can receive treatment that research has shown to work best. This year training delivered included MANTRA for adults with anorexia nervosa and multi family therapy (MFT) for adolescents with anorexia nervosa. We also delivered FREED training which is a service model that prioritises early intervention.
People with eating disorders can present across the health system and require care that is integrated and safe. All our eating disorder teams have continued to build care pathways with the hospitals in their areas, where we know some people with eating disorders will need to receive treatment.
We held our third annual HSE National Eating Disorder Webinar in February 2024 which was attended by large numbers of health professionals from a range of health backgrounds. We are delivering our fourth national webinar during Eating Disorder Awareness week 2025 and delighted to have eating disorder paediatricians and physicians included in our line up. Integrated care remains a key priority for the National Clinical Programme.
We continue to work closely with our partner Bodywhys who deliver a comprehensive suite of support services to families/carers and people living with eating disorders. In 2024, with Bodywhys, we established a national Expert By Experience Group to ensure the voice, views and experiences of those with an eating disorder and their carers/supporters are central to the continued development of services.
In 2024 we have seen the capacity within our network of eating disorder teams increase as there was a 33% rise in referrals. While most people accessing eating disorder teams are children and adolescents, we are pleased to report that 51% more adults accessed an assessment with an eating disorder team than in 2023. 80% of all accepted referrals were seen within 8 weeks and 90% of those starting treatment did so within 4 weeks of assessment. 410 people started treatment for an eating disorder and almost 20% more children, adolescents and adults were attending eating disorder community teams at the end of 2024 compared to 2023. We hope this increased capacity continues throughout 2025.
Throughout 2024 and going forward we regularly update the Minister of State for Mental Health & Older People, Mary Butler, on the progress of the NCPED. We remain grateful for her support and commitment to funding future eating disorder teams.
The NCPED is looking forward to 2025 and continuing our work to deliver the Model of Care which is aimed at improving the quality of HSE eating disorder services for people with eating disorders of all ages and for their families and carers.
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