The mother of an anorexic girl who claims the HSE has "failed to take responsibility" for her daughter’s illness is protesting outside the Department of Health today.

Amy Hanley’s 16-year-old daughter was admitted to hospital with anorexia one year ago today – and has been sent to five different hospitals in the months since.

“The past year, she's only been home for roughly about three weeks,” Ms Hanley said.

“The rest of the time she's been she's been in five different hospitals and facilities.”

Ms Hanley is protesting outside the Department of Health and the Dáil today, demanding shorter waiting lists and better coordination between health services for mental health.

Waiting lists

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Ms Hanley said she first noticed something was wrong with her daughter when she was 13. 

“We brought her to the GP, and he referred us on to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS),” she said. 

“The waitlist was so long, we ended up going back to the GP multiple times asking for a new referral... we called our local CAMHS asking where she was on the waitlist. 

“In that span of time, her condition went from a bit concerning to needing hospitalisation – she deteriorated.” 

Ms Hanley said the family felt “so helpless” when they were trying to access care as the doctor had not given her daughter an official diagnosis.

Hospitalised

Eventually, her daughter’s condition became so bad that she was hospitalised for a month. 

“She then got a spot at an inpatient facility – she ended up there for three months,” Ms Hanley explained. 

“Then she was discharged and a week later, she ended up back in the children's hospital and nobody, none of the inpatient units, would take her back.” 

The original hospital her daughter was sent to refused to take her back because she wasn’t in the “catchment area”.

Coordination between services

Ms Hanley said there’s a complete lack of coordination between the different health services, resulting in further deterioration of her daughter’s health. 

“There was no actual plan for her,” she said. “We asked CAMHS, we asked the hospital, we asked the HSE – nobody was taking responsibility for her.”

In her protest today, Ms Hanley is demanding more coordination between health services and calling for a reduction in waiting lists for psychiatric services.

“Immediate therapy would really make a big difference to helping with some of these anorexic or eating disorders,” she said. 

“Even supports for carers and parents because we didn’t know what to do in the meantime.” 

Ms Hanley will begin protesting peacefully from 10am outside the Department of Health before marching to the Dáil.