Why Eating Disorders Remain Underfunded Despite High Rates

There are a number of mental health conditions, but eating disorders raise the bar of health risks in Australia. According to the Australian Burden of Disease Study, this mental health disorder is the third-highest source of mental health burden for women.

Although eating disorders are a serious health condition, they are not getting the right funding, as this issue receives the lowest per-person research investment. Understanding why the gap is there and what it costs Australians is the first step towards a better future.

The Mortality Reality

Australia spent more than $11 billion on overall mental health-related services in 2022 and 2023. According to research by the Butterfly Foundation, eating disorder research received approximately $28.1 million in funding over 13 years, equating to around $2.05 per affected person.

This amount of funding is too low compared to other mental conditions:

• $19.56 for depression
• $32.11 for autism
• $176.19 for schizophrenia

The Butterfly Foundation report found that more than 1,200 deaths are related to eating issues in 2023, and a 21% increase in prevalence since 2012. These numbers are likely undercounted due to misclassification of comorbidity.

Why does the funding gap exist?

Eating disorders are underfunded because they frequently co-occur with depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Also, cause-of-death recordings are always attributed to a comorbid condition rather than an eating disorder. This reduces the official mortality burden, the sole metric that funding bodies use to justify allocations.

The national data does not exist at the level needed, and data gaps remain, which is an important limitation across Australia’s mental health system. For eating disorders, there are no standard datasets that capture prevalence, treatment access, or outcomes across states and cities. Without this data infrastructure, funding justifications cannot be made.

This mental health condition is constantly being misunderstood as lifestyle choices, adolescent phases, or responses to social media. In truth, this is a complex psychiatric illness with genetic, biological, and neurological factors. This misunderstanding reaches policymakers and reduces advocacy traction compared to the conditions perceived as purely medical.

Who is most affected?

The 2024 report from ABS and Deloitte shows that 67% of women and 33% of men are experiencing an eating disorder. Currently, 27% of them are aged 19 or younger, which is up by 12 percentage points since 2012.

The Australian male population, being men and boys, is underdiagnosed, and their eating disorders are different from those of females. This is because of muscularity-oriented disordered eating, which means male prevalence is likely understated.

Transgender Australians face a high risk of eating disorder diagnosis as compared to cisgender people. Also, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities face additional problems, such as:

• Geographic access
• Cultural safety within mainstream services
• Food insecurity

The 2024 Deloitte report found a 36% increase in the economic cost since 2012. This was carried out by individuals and carers rather than by the health system.

What is Australia Doing?

The National Eating Disorders Strategy is a plan that will run from 2023 to 2033. This strategy is developed by NEDC and funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. This is Australia’s first 10-year roadmap for coordinated care, which launched in August 2023.

It is based on a stepped-care model that matches treatment options to the individual’s clinical needs. They are prioritising early intervention and community-based approaches rather than hospitalisation.

In September 2025, the Eating Disorder Alliance, which includes the Butterfly Foundation, Eating Disorders Victoria, Eating Disorders Queensland, EDFA, and ANZAED, called on the government to fund $20.72 million annually to implement the strategy.

For context, this represents less than 0.02% of Australia’s projected $122.8 billion health budget, which is a modest ask relative to the scale of the problem.

Despite this, sector bodies continue to note that a strategy without dedicated, sustained funding commitments may not lead to real change. Standardised national data collection, a public awareness campaign to encourage early help-seeking, and designated workforce development are all listed as priorities that remain underfunded in the current cycle.

The Treatment Gap

Evidence-based treatments for eating disorders exist and work quite effectively.  It is recommended to go for Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT-E) as the primary outpatient treatment for bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.

Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is used as a first-line treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa, and Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM) for adults with anorexia nervosa.

The barrier is not the absence of treatment but the access to it. Factors that create a significant gap between need and care are as follows:

• Long waitlists
• Geographic distance from specialist services
• Financial cost
• The clinical threshold requirements for intensive care programs

Telehealth has meaningfully reduced this gap, particularly for Australians in regional, rural, and remote areas. For those seeking psychiatric assessment and ongoing support, telehealth services like HelloDoc provide accessible video consultations with qualified psychiatrists across all Australian states and territories.

Early treatment matters because the evidence is clear that eating disorders treated earlier in their course have significantly better outcomes and require less intensive and costly care. Getting the right assessment sooner is not just important but also efficient.

What Needs to Change?

To conclude, the path forward requires action on three fronts, one being dedicated federal and state government funding commitments that are proportionate to the disease burden.

Secondly, implement a national public health awareness campaign to reduce stigma and improve access to care, as less than 30% of people with eating disorders are accessing treatment.

Lastly, an urgent need for standardisation of data collection practices across healthcare services so that eating disorder mortality, prevalence, and outcomes can be tracked.

The Eating Disorder Alliance has made a strong, fully cost case. The National Strategy has made the roadmap clear. The AIHW’s own burden-of-disease data has made the urgency undeniable. What remains is the political will to match funding to evidence.

Written by HelloDoc

HelloDoc is an Australian telepsychiatry platform that provides accessible mental health care through online psychiatry and psychology services.

This telehealth platform provides support for a wide range of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and more. The services are designed to deliver comprehensive assessment, diagnosis, and ongoing management that are tailored to each individual’s needs.

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