The 22-year-old has been battling the eating disorder for ten years and, last December, was admitted to hospital weighting just five stone.
The family had previously told the Belfast Telegraph that they believed time was running out for the young woman, blaming Northern Ireland’s lack of specialist in-patient care for eating disorders.
Emma is currently in the Mater where she has been for six months despite appeals to transfer her to a specialist unit in England, and her brother John has told the paper that her condition is deteriorating.
"In the last two weeks she has had a feeding tube refitted. We realised that nothing is really being done in the hospital. They are not really treating the cause properly which is a psychiatric condition. That is something she is still not receiving. The longer she lies there without the help - her body is disintegrating," he said.
Letters from the Young family have been written to Northern Ireland's Health Minister Simon Hamilton asking for his help, but they have yet to hear anything concrete back.
"The message we are getting back is that is that it is urgently referred to the Trust. But it's a wall of silence as to what is going to happen,” John sadly admitted to the paper.
"It seems we are background noise to the bigger problem which is agreeing welfare reform. Obviously what we are asking costs a lot and is probably something that we could never fund ourselves. But where they are investing the money at the minute they have no in-patient facilities. It is not helping Emma."
A spokesperson from the Department of Health said: "The minister has received correspondence from the Young family and from elected representatives, concerning Ms Young and responses have been issued.”
"The minister will consider the further invitation from the family to meet, but recognises it would not be appropriate for the department to discuss an individual's case or for him to interfere in the clinical decisions of specialists.”
Our thoughts are with the Young family at this terrible time, and we hope Emma gets the treatment she needs sooner rather than later.
If you or someone you know has an eating disorder you can contact Bodywhys on 1890 200 444.
