3 Sep 2025

Mental Health Minister labels new strategy for eating disorder services a 'silent revolution'

1:07 pm on 3 September 2025
Eating Disorders Association New Zealand chair Megan Tombs welcomed today's new national strategy at a launch event at Parliament.

The current single peer support worker will soon be expanded to a national team. Photo: RNZ / Anneke Smith

Warning: This story talks about eating disorders and mental health.

The Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is heralding a new approach to eating disorder services as revolutionary.

The country's strategy to support those who are unwell has been revamped in its first significant reset since 2008.

It will expand the single peer support worker to a national team and create community-based support for families and carers.

An extra $4 million a year, bringing the total annual spend to $23 million, will also increase the capacity of specialist services.

Speaking at his strategy launch at Parliament on Wednesday morning, Doocey said it was "a humble start" to what was the first Eating Disorder and Body Image Awareness Week.

"I'm really excited about the refresh, I think it's more of a reset that allows us to really shine the light on an area that, at times, hasn't had the profile and exposure that is needed.

"We're going to be rolling out peer-led roles in eating disorder services and I love the magic of them. I call it the silent revolution, not because they're new but I think we're really getting traction."

The number of people suffering from eating disorders skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic, with hospital admissions jumping 75 percent between 2017 and 2022.

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Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

Doocey said there wasn't accurate data to understand their true prevalence right now but international figures suggested 8 percent of females and 2 percent of males had eating disorder and body image issues.

Doocey was an opposition MP when he accepted a petition from Christchurch mum Rebecca Toms, calling for more support for young people that were suffering.

"I took up the invitation to join a support group for parents in Christchurch and I turned up that night in Riccarton to find a group of parents who were just, quite frankly, at their wits end trying to understand a system they weren't equipped to navigate.

"Then I found organisations like EDANZ (Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand) who were running on the smell of an oily rag of volunteers providing, quite often, life-saving information."

'Remember feeling alone and as if nobody understood' - support worker

Ruby Winter is the country's sole Health New Zealand-funded youth peer support worker for eating disorders, working out of Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch.

She spoke at Wednesday's launch about her lived experience with anorexia, starting at 12-years-old, and how it had helped her help others who were now suffering.

"My mum took me to the GP with complaints that I wasn't feeling well. I recall feeling like I was in a completely different realm to my friends at school.

"They had energy joy and would laugh. I was so malnourished that I didn't even have the energy to laugh."

Winter said she was a sporty kid and this had masked an eating disorder.

"After my diagnosis, things started to make more sense. The disordered behaviours and habits I had engaged in around food and exercise were the result of anorexia, and not just a weird part of me.

"There is a lot of shame, guilt and negative stigma you can feel with an eating disorder."

Although she stuck to a treatment programme and restored her weight, she relapsed the following year when she was stressed at school.

"I started to restrict my food intake again because it gave me something else to focus on, a coping mechanism, and that's how I became an inpatient at Princess Margaret Hospital in Christchurch.

"My memory of this time is a bit of a blur, however I clearly remember feeling alone and as if nobody understood.

"This is where I believe it would have been integral to have a peer support worker involved to have walked alongside me understand what I was going through, and to provide hope that recovery was possible."

Winter said she was beyond excited about the new strategy and hoped it would help more young people who were battling eating disorders.

EDANZ chair Megan Tombs, whose daughter had an eating disorder, said the strategy had the potential to give people access to effective, evidence-based treatment for eating disorders without delay.

"I cannot emphasise enough how desperate it feels not to be able to nourish your child. Hearing that Ruby couldn't remember it, I know my daughter can't remember it, but as parents we remember every single meal, every battle, every bite.

"We now have a starting point and a strategy to support all of those affected."

More information about this strategy can be found here on the Ministry of Health's website.

Where to get help:

  • Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.
  • Eating Disorders Association of NZ: 0800 2 EDANZ
  • Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357.
  • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.
  • Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202.
  • Samaritans: 0800 726 666.
  • Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz.
  • What's Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds.
  • Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, and English.
  • Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254.
  • Healthline: 0800 611 116.
  • Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155.
  • OUTLine: 0800 688 5463.

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

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