The College of Medicine and Health (CoMH) at UCC today announced details of its high profile launch report that took place at UCC with Simon Coveney TD and Tánaiste, Jim Daly TD and Minister of State for Health, Councillor Mick Flynn Lord Mayor Cork City, and Patrick Murphy Mayor of Cork County in attendance.
The Eating Disorders Centre Cork (EDCC), Community Work Department , HSE and the Department of General Practice – UCC, all came together to launch the findings of this crucially important report on the Eating Disorder Centre in Cork. People travel from all over the country to visit the Eating Disorder Centre.
The purpose of this report was to assess, and evaluate, the levels of efficacy and satisfaction with the service provided by the Eating Disorder Centre Cork (EDCC). This year sees EDCC celebrating 10 years of service delivery.
“When the centre started the service in 2008, one person said: ‘Everything we do must be for the benefit of the client.’ And so, we are very happy that overall the findings of the evaluation affirm that we have adhered to this aspiration,” said Trish Shiel, Centre Manager.
“The report not only communicates the mainly positive response of clients to the service provided by EDCC, but also helps provide a forward focus towards enhancing future service delivery. EDCC, originated from a dedicated group of people whose purpose was to reach out with a first-class service to people, their families and carers, who suffer with an eating disorder. Therefore, our determined goal was to maintain high standards of performance and excellence, both within the area of clinical service, and in the organisation. We believe this report shows that we have gone a long way toward achieving that goal, and we now look forward to building on these findings.”
Key Findings
- The EDCC offers support to people from the ages of 12 to 60, living in Cork City and County, and as far as Waterford, Kerry and Tipperary. People attend weekly or fortnightly, but the majority wish to attend twice a week. Currently there 80 people attending the service. Clients are 95% satisfied with the service.
- The clients stated that they encountered a number of ongoing challenges in recovering from their eating disorders. These included – but were not limited to – uncertainty around diagnosis, comorbidities, financial burden, hospitalisation, underemployment, unemployment, loss of earnings and absenteeism from work, college or school.
- People using the service are often exposed to financial burdens with 50% using the service earning less than 12,000 per year.
- One third of those using the service are between the ages of 15 and 20.
- Further research is needed to explore the connection between sudden changes in eating behaviors (for example not eating meat or other restrictions) and development of an eating disorder. This report tentatively suggests that people aged 15 to 20 or younger, who change their eating behaviors, should seek advice and support when doing so, and that parents should also seek advice on sudden changes in eating behaviors.
“What is needed to deal with diagnosis is integrated care, in line with HSE policy, however, this needs to be implemented and may need further invested in the future. There are very limited resources for those seeking help in relation to eating disorders, with 1,800 new cases per year.”
More information on the Eating Disorder Centre at eatingdisordercentrecork.ie and the UCC Department of General Practice at ucc.ie/en/gp.
