‘Game changer’ eating disorder facility set to open in North Canterbury

Moving to America was the only option Kristie Amadio had to treat her eating disorder – but nearly 10 years on, she’s just one step away from providing the same recovery treatment in Aotearoa.

The Recovered Living NZ centre has secured funding from three “very generous families in the South Island” who wanted to remain anonymous, allowing her to begin renovations and aim for an opening in April 2023, she said.

She said she wished she had access to this kind of centre when she was “slipping through the cracks” during the peak of her eating disorder, which she described as “pure hell”.

The centre, about 30 minutes north of Christchurch in Sefton, will provide care to patients with eating disorders and include 12 beds, specialist staff, residential care, a day programme, a partial programme and virtual care.

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Ready to “hit the ground running”, she said there was already a wait list to get into the facility and she had been “overwhelmed” by the expressions of interest from around the country for staff vacancies.

“We’re the only treatment centre in New Zealand that has a full continuum of care”, she said.

She was “probably going to be in debt for the rest of her life” after receiving residential treatment in Los Angeles in 2013 for her eating disorder, she said.

“I would’ve gone in debt for $100 million dollars, it’s not even about the money, it’s the quality of life that I have. Having something like this available in New Zealand would’ve been an absolute game changer.”

In 2020 Amadio told Stuff she struggled with “every eating disorder symptom in the book”.

“Upon waking my first thought would be to calculate what I had eaten the day before and how much I had exercised. My second thought was about what I would eat today and how much exercise I would need to do to compensate. Maintaining my disordered eating and exercising was a fulltime job both physically and mentally.”

She said she qualified, by former district health board criteria, to get weekly appointments with a psychologist, but she didn’t meet the weight criteria for more specialised treatment in Christchurch.

With no resolution in sight, she flew to a specialised facility in the US which cost almost $2000 a day. She was told she required four months of in-house care before stepping down to a three-month programme as an out-patient.

She said some who were on the Sefton facility wait list had gone to Australia for treatment, paying $1400 a day, “and they’re getting better, so it proves the model does work”.

The cost per day at Recovered Living NZ would be $850 a day for the residential programme.

The minimum length of stay would be four weeks, she said, but “to make long term foundational change” two to four months was recommended.

The private facility didn’t have government funding “at this stage”, she said.

“It breaks my heart as it means it’s only available to a portion of people”, she said.

She had a vision to have it available to all New Zealanders that needed it at an affordable price, she said.

Where to get help for eating disorders

• 1737, Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor.

• Healthline 0800 611 116, available 24/7

• EDANZ 0800 2 EDANZ – Support for family of those with an eating disorder.

• If you think you are suffering from an eating disorder, see your GP immediately for a referral to specialist services.

• If it is an emergency or you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.