FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 15 May 2026
The Associated New Zealand Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Society (ANZMES) is calling on the Ministry of Health to address a critical gap in the draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. ANZMES made this submission on behalf of a national collective of ME/CFS organisations which included Complex Chronic Illness Support, Long Covid Support Aotearoa, M.E. Awareness NZ, ME/CFS Canterbury, MEISS Otago and Southland, ME Support NZ, ME Respite, and Tū Pakari (Stand Together).
In a comprehensive submission, ANZMES revealed that between 150,000 and 200,000 New Zealanders – a population larger than the city of Hamilton – are now living with ME/CFS or post-viral conditions. Despite this scale, the current draft Strategy fails to mention these conditions, leaving one of the country’s largest chronic illness groups without a safe clinical pathway for mental wellbeing.
ANZMES President Fiona Charlton warns that the mental distress, such as anxiety and/or depression, experienced by this community is often a direct result of systemic failure, rather than primary psychiatric illness in origin.
“Mental distress in our community is a rational response to unmanaged physical symptoms, loss of employment, and the trauma of being disbelieved by the very systems designed to help” says Fiona Charlton. “When patients are met with ‘medical gaslighting’ or prescribed harmful treatments, the resulting trauma is healthcare-induced.”
Key Findings Highlighted in the Submission:
- A Growing Population: Ministry of Health data suggests 185,000 people currently live with Long COVID. ANZMES estimates 30-35% of these individuals will meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS.
- Harmful Interventions: Many New Zealanders are still being prescribed outdated treatments that worsen their condition, contrary to international guidelines (NICE 2021; CDC 2021).
- Access Barriers: For the 25% of patients who are housebound or bedbound, the mental health system is effectively non-existent. Current models require “active participation” that physically exceeds the energy limits of those with Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM).
- Inequity for Māori: Māori face higher disability burdens and greater barriers to diagnosis, leading to significant diagnostic overshadowing and lack of culturally grounded care.
ANZMES is calling on the Ministry of Health to establish a technical advisory group to co-design implementation modules for the 10-year Strategy. Key recommendations include:
- Mandating safe-care guidelines that prohibit harmful interventions like GET.
- Developing workforce training on PEM and sensory-sensitive care using existing ANZMES-accredited clinical education.
- Ensuring physical accessibility through telehealth, bedside care and low sensory clinical environments for the severely affected.
- Recognising healthcare-induced trauma within the Strategy’s trauma-informed care framework.
“To achieve the Strategy’s goals of ‘Access and Choice,’ the Ministry must acknowledge that for a bedbound patient, ‘community care’ must mean bedside care,” says Fiona Charlton. “We cannot allow 200,000 New Zealanders to remain invisible in a strategy meant to ensure the wellbeing of all.”