Irish Examiner view: Time to focus on children's eating disorders
Instead of being treated in the community — as preferred by the HSE — people, and young people in particular, are being referred to Camhs. Picture: iStock
It is a sad truism about modern Ireland that, every day of every week, we hear stories about another marginalised segment of society that is in dire straits as a result of inaction by government and/or State services.
This past week saw those suffering from eating disorders being affected
A lack of specialist services and expertise across the country has caused a situation whereby there has been a significant increase in the number of child admissions to psychiatric inpatient units due to eating disorders.
There are plans to have 16 specialist teams working throughout the country to treat patients, but only six are in place.
The net result is that instead of being treated in the community — as preferred by the HSE — people, and young people in particular, are being referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) inpatient units instead.
Data from the Health Research Board, published in these columns last week, showed that last year there was a 30% increase in admissions among those seeking treatment for eating disorders at Camhs inpatient units. This compared to a 20% increase up to 2020.
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The increases are so significant that eating disorders are now the biggest single category of psychiatric diagnosis among children admitted to hospital.
Given that treatment within the community is the preferred option for those with eating disorders, redirecting people to specialist psychiatric care units is patently the incorrect option, even if it’s the only one.
This is a problem that affects both children and adults, and while there is much comment and speculation at present about what the forthcoming budget will contain and who the beneficiaries of any government spending increases will be, there are still obvious areas that need tackling and this is one of them.
Sadly, much of the infighting among those in government is focused on what will politically benefit whom and not on those who are in the most pressing need of the State’s attention and resources.
As in so many instances, the attention is too often in the wrong direction.
The invitation by the EU last week to invite Canada to join as an associate member is yet another move by global powers to resist the bullying of US president Donald Trump.
It was met, as is so often the case, with an hysterical response from the incumbent in the Oval Office that illustrates clearly his infuriation at being unable to get his way.
Much as Iran has stymied his efforts to bully it into submission and the Israeli genocide in Palestine has further sullied his approach to foreign affairs, the EU has consistently rejected his obsessive financial, military, and personal demands.
So too Canada. Trump believed his ace card was the simple fact that Canada needed the US more than the US needed it, but this has turned out to be yet another idealistic fallacy of the president.
Iran punched back on Trump’s bullying and left him humiliated and baffled. So he turned on Canada instead and started a trade war — not an actual war this time — that has brought about the last thing he expected: Canadian resilience.
His assertions that Canada had “ripped off” the US for years assumed that America’s northern neighbour would quickly surrender to his tariffs and threats because it had more to lose. His bullying of Canada has ignited a rarely seen countrywide patriotism and led to a surge of support for prime minister Mark Carney.
It also dimmed the prospects Canada’s separatist movements in Alberta and Quebec.
Canada’s resistance in the face of Washington’s unceasing abuse and threats — as well as that of Iran — has inspired confidence among others, including the EU, that his is a bluff well worth calling.
The move to strengthen ties between Europe and Canada not only undermines US geopolitical reach and strength but is fast shredding any possibility of success for the Republican party in the country’s forthcoming mid-term elections in November.
The desperation oozing from the Oval Office was underlined by his decision last week to ban certain “unfriendly” media organisations from the White House — a move that almost certainly breaches the First Amendment of the US constitution.
A strong and unified EU, along with allies such as Canada, can only be good for the bloc in the face of Trump intimidation.
Those looking at the long-running and ever more heart-rending story emerging from the Tuam mother and baby home scandal have seen in gruesome detail how the names of the 796 children who died there came to light.
Largely thanks to the tireless efforts of local historian Catherine Corless, the story has emerged from the murky mists of historical institutions such as that in the Co Galway town, and the public now has a pretty good idea of the horrors visited upon the women sent there and the children born to them while they were there.
The collective effect on the public at large is undeniable and the Government’s approach to finding the remains of those buried at the site has been laudable, if somewhat late in the day. Indeed, the attempts across the board to give those who died the dignity they were never afforded in life has been very welcome.
But this is a story that has not yet been fully told and may not be for years yet. But the launch in Dublin at the weekend of a new film on the subject The Lost Children of Tuam will hopefully bring the story to an even wider audience.
But, and as Corless herself said at the film’s premiere, the fight for the truth goes on. As more and more bodies emerge from the exhumation that is ongoing in Tuam, that truth is materialising.
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