North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has called for the Welsh Government to establish targets and publish monthly statistics on waiting times for mental health treatment, including issues such as eating disorders.
Speaking in yesterday’s Welsh Parliament debate on Eating Disorders, Mr Isherwood, who in January challenged the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing Minister over actions “to ensure faster and equitable progress in improving eating disorder services across Wales”, called for an update on progress.
He said:
“Speaking here in January, I highlighted findings in eating disorder charity Beat’s ‘Welsh Eating Disorder Service Review - 3 Years On’ report, published that week, and called on the Welsh Government to support the report’s recommendations.
“When I asked the Deputy Minister whether the Welsh Government, in line with Beat’s recommendation, would publish a new service model or framework including timescales to set out what they expect from Health Boards – and, if so, when she would expect this to happen - she replied that the Welsh Government will be using Beat’s report to inform their work going forward.
“We therefore need to know where, when and how.
“As this motion states ‘improvements in eating disorder services in the last three years have been uneven, continuing the inequity documented by the review’, and ‘treatment for those affected in Wales varies greatly depending on age, diagnosis and location’.
He added:
“When I met Beat’s National Officer Wales in early January, ahead of publication of their ‘3 Years On Report’, she told me that Beat have been calling for the full implementation of its 2018 Eating Disorder Service Review’s recommendations since it was published by the Welsh Government.
“These included the allocation of sufficient funding, workforce and staff training, accompanied by an implementation plan and timescales for when the recommendations will be fully implemented across Wales.
“I therefore again urge Members who genuinely care about this issue to vote in favour of our amendment calling on ‘the Welsh Government to establish targets and publish monthly statistics on waiting times for mental health treatment, including issues such as eating disorders’. As with so much else, without this, the Welsh Government’s designer fortifications will lack foundations.”
“When I met Beat’s National Officer Wales in early January, we also discussed the need to strengthen the connection between eating disorder services and other specialist services including Autism and Diabetes.
“She subsequently sent me further details about Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and how it can co-occur with other conditions such as Autism.”
Mr Isherwood also emphasised that Beat’s survey of health and care professionals and volunteers found a ‘lack of integrated/collaborative working with other health or social care services’ and ‘a lack of integrated/collaborative working with schools/colleges/Universities … restricting the ability of their teams/services to meet the current demand for eating disorder treatment’.
He added: “If the Welsh Government is sincere, it must commit to real action accordingly.