Butterfly’s 2025 in Review: Working towards an Australia free of eating disorders and body dissatisfaction
As we reflect on the past year, we’re proud to highlight and share our milestones, progress and impacts, as Australia’s national charity for people impacted by eating disorders and body image concerns.
This blog outlines the key achievements made possible by our dedicated teams, partners, and community, and emphasises how collaborative efforts help us move closer to an Australia free of eating disorders and body dissatisfaction.
Prevention Services
This year, the Prevention Services team launched the results of the third BodyKind Youth Survey, supported generously by the nib Foundation, and developed a series of assets and practical tips to help young people in being BodyKind.
Our primary school body image program, Butterfly Body Bright, continued to support young people to feel BRIGHT in their bodies, with over 96% of actively engaged Body Bright schools rating the program five stars, and nearly 92% saying they would recommend the program to another school. Our Body Bright staff training continues to increase educator knowledge and confidence, with over 90% of educators reporting improvements in the way the staff teach about bodies, nutrition and/or health.
Ongoing demand for BodyKind Education saw the team onboard four new sessional presenters across the country, with our dedicated and passionate team of nine presenters collectively facilitating 181 youth sessions, 34 professional sessions and 17 parent seminars this year.
BodyKind Online Education was made available to all schools, Australia-wide, following a final review and edit that applied the recommendations from the pilot evaluation. We also future-proofed the program so that it respects the current government legislation, while supporting young people’s body image with the critical building of digital literacy and online safety skills.
Communications & Engagement
For this year’s Body Image and Eating Disorder Awareness Week (BIEDAW), the Communications and Engagement team ‘Unpacked the Why’ with our Lived Experience community members, to consider some of the many factors that can contribute to the development of an eating disorder. We reached nearly 350k accounts, with more than 15k engagements and 755 new followers to our social media channels.
We also launched ‘The Changing Room’ with the Liptember Foundation, partnering with key organisations in women’s health, to address body image issues in women across a lifetime. The campaign featured diverse women of different ages, backgrounds and experiences, reaching over 4.5 million people through media.
Butterfly continued with our advocacy work, including advocating for eating disorder funding from the Federal Government as part of the Eating Disorder Alliance, knocking on doors in Canberra, introducing Lived Experience advocates at every chance, and attracting significant media coverage.
People & Culture
In 2025, the People and Culture team launched a new recognition program, which involves awards for staff who consistently display our values of respect, compassion, collaboration and inclusivity, as well as milestone awards, birthday awards, and spontaneous awards.
We are supporting teams in building their ability to hold constructive, courageous conversations, starting with intensive training for the Senior Leadership Team. We have also introduced the new role of Wellbeing Champions, which several staff have taken on with passion. They champion staff mental health and wellbeing by being a point of contact for employees who may have questions regarding managing their wellbeing, which includes encouraging the utilisation of our Employee Assistance Program.
Fundraising
For the first time in five years, Butterfly hosted a large-scale fundraising event, the Butterfly Trophies Lunch. We welcomed over 450 guests and influential figures from the AFL community to the iconic Melbourne Cricket Grounds, raising over $280,000 for our essential programs and services.
Butterfly’s 2025 tax appeal ‘Throw a Lifeline’ was a great success raising essential funds for our Peer Mentoring Program.
We also officially launched our community fundraising initiative, the Butterfly Effect and saw over 150 people in the community coming together to talk about our work and raise funds for Butterfly.
Clinical Services
This year saw renewed government funding for the Butterfly National Helpline, helping ensure increased early intervention and care navigation supports. We were proud to connect with nearly 25,000 people through our National Helpline, providing free information, advice and short-term counselling to those experiencing, at risk of, or caring for those with eating disorders and body dissatisfaction.
Recovery Support Services continue to provide supportive, safe places where people can discuss their eating disorder and body image concerns, with the In-Person Recovery Support Groups recently re-launched in Hobart, and our Webchat Recovery Support Groups back up and running, with positive feedback.
One participant who accessed Butterfly’s Recovery Support services said the best thing about the groups is feeling connected, saying “I know [in] my first group I was really nervous, because there’s so many emotions going through your head and you just don’t know what to expect. But then when you get met with all this kindness and helpful tips and tricks from the group, and even just listening to the different scenarios sometimes – it resonates and feels so much less lonely.”
Wandi Nerida
In 2025, Butterfly’s residential eating disorder facility, Wandi Nerida, celebrated four years of operation, continuing to provide exemplary, intensive and holistic care as the most established residential recovery centre in Australia.
There have been 270 admissions since the facility’s opening, with 66 participants completing eating disorder treatment at Wandi Nerida during the 2025 Financial Year. Nine of these participants received philanthropic financial support for treatment and 48 participants were fully funded by Queensland Health.
Over the year, Wandi Nerida partnered with Western Sydney University on several groundbreaking research projects. Research findings highlighted the effectiveness of Wandi Nerida’s unique model of care, particularly for complex cases involving trauma and co-occurring health issues, and that participants experienced long-lasting positive effects following treatment, even after discharge.
This year, Wandi Nerida was named as a HRD ‘5 Star Employer of Choice’, following high employee satisfaction in areas of working life, including benefits, compensation, culture, employee development and commitment to diversity and inclusion. Wandi Nerida also passed the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) accreditation with flying colours, receiving a commendation for Comprehensive Care.
Our end-of-year fundraising event, Skydiving Santas: Wishes for Wandi, raised over $10k for Wandi Nerida, as the community rallied behind seven brave skydivers who put up their hand for an important cause.
Until 2026!
A big Butterfly thank you to our passionate teams, stakeholders, donors, partners, and community members, for helping us support the over 1.1 million people in Australia impacted by eating disorders, the countless more experiencing body dissatisfaction, and their loved ones supporting them through this journey. We’ll see you in 2026!
Image: Butterfly staff connecting and having fun at the end-of-year office event in Sydney.
Get Support
We acknowledge that the festive season can be particularly challenging for people navigating an eating disorder or body image concern, and we want to remind you that help is available.
For confidential and free counselling, call the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or chat online or email, 7 days a week, 8am-midnight (AEDT). Please note that our helpline is closed on national public holidays, including Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day.
Find an eating disorder professional – search Butterfly’s National Referral Database to find eating disorder practitioners closest to you.
You can also contact Lifeline 24/7, by calling 13 11 14, or you can text 0477 13 11 14 or chat online at https://www.lifeline.org.au/chat?q=get-help/services/chat
