Thank you all so much for inviting us here to speak about this really important issue.
I want to echo what we've heard from a lot of the panellists. I am a survivor of an eating disorder, and we know that eating disorders are complex, common, serious illnesses with the highest mortality rate of many mental illnesses. In the mental health community, we've been calling the alarm on eating disorders for 20 years, and we are in a grave situation. Indeed, this is a crisis point. We know that, with rapid access to early intervention, treatment and support, people can and do go on to lead fulfilling lives and are able to fully recover from this illness, but too many are denied the opportunity to recover.
I want to call upon all aspects of our community to enable several recommendations, again, streaming from the work done by the national eating disorders groups. We need rapid access to low-barrier support, including peer support, support for families, training for clinicians and training on early intervention for primary health care providers, and finally, funding for community-based organizations, which are picking up an incredible burden supporting folks with eating disorders.
Here at my organization, Eating Disorders Nova Scotia, we have been providing peer support to folks of Nova Scotia for the past 20 years. We're now extending this across Canada because the demand is so great.
I look forward to working more on this issue collectively with you all. Thank you.