Speaking here in January, I 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”.
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.
The Welsh Government’s ‘Eating Disorder Service Review’ in 2018 set out an ambitious vision based on early intervention, evidence-based treatment, and support for families.
Eating disorder charity ‘Beat’ played a key role in this Review.
Beat’s report, published that week, found that progress toward achieving that vision has varied widely across Wales.
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”.
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.
It must also be emphasised (again) that Beat’s campaign theme this year, “Worth More Than 2 Hours” is about the current lack of training on Eating Disorders for students studying at medical school.
Their top “key policy ask” in Wales for this Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2022 is for eating disorders to be appropriately taught and assessed at all medical schools and for all junior doctors to gain clinical experience during foundation training – where learning about eating disorders is generally overlooked in medical training, with severe consequences for the prognosis and safety of patients.
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; increased waiting times for specialist treatment, with people becoming vulnerable in the meantime; and the need for both early intervention and greater support for families.
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.
ARFID is a condition characterised by the person avoiding certain foods or types of food, having restricted intake in terms of overall amount eaten, or both.
Someone might be avoiding and/or restricting their intake for a number of different reasons, including:
- sensitivity to the taste, texture, smell, or appearance of certain types of food, or only being able to eat foods at a certain temperature.
This can lead to sensory-based avoidance or restriction of intake.
As Beat state, ARFID can be present on its own, or it can co-occur with other conditions; most commonly anxiety disorders, Autism, ADHD.
As Beat’s “3 Years on” Report states:
“The eating disorder service review explained that early intervention and evidence based treatment require an integrated approach, with good communication and collaboration between services.
“In particular it focused on improving integration between eating disorder services and primary care, weight management services, diabetes services, autism/neurodevelopmental services, other mental health services and the voluntary and community sector.”
However, their 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”.
If the Welsh Government is sincere, it must commit to real action accordingly.