To ask the Minister of Health (i) to detail the number of people that have sought help for eating disorders in each of the last five years; and (ii) for his assessment of the scale of the problem beyond the scope of health services.

The table below shows the number of referrals number of people to the each of the Health and Social Care Trust Eating Disorder Services. The figures are the total number of people seeking help of both the Adult Eating Disorder services and Child Eating Disorder services in each Trust. Figures for both the Belfast and South Eastern Trust have also been combined as the Belfast Trust provides Specialist Eating Disorder Services to South Eastern Trust.

While Northern Ireland already has a regional network for the provision of services for people with an eating disorder, outcomes for these patients could be improved. I recently approved the strategic policy direction for future eating disorder services flowing from a review carried out by the Regional Eating Disorder Network Group (REDNG), and this has been reflected in the recently published Mental Health Strategy 2021-31. The Strategy highlights, in Action 29d, the need to “Enhance the regional eating disorder service”. The planning for the Strategy implementation is ongoing and will be dependent on the approval of further funding.