Male sexual abuse victims have a place for extra support by way of the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust Otago.
The trust has been running since July last year and the membership is small but a national body set up last week aims to change that.
Otago trust manager and facilitator Phil Sunitsch said the subject of sexual abuse, especially for males, was still very much a taboo subject, despite one in six men being victims.
''We provide a peer support service,'' Mr Sunitsch said.
''Males specifically feel very isolated.
''Health professionals are very good and very caring but because they haven't been through it, they don't get it.
''All the survivors I have worked with have found it very beneficial.''
Mr Sunitsch, a social worker at Dunedin Hospital, said most abuse happened when people were children and some took a long time to talk about it.
The national body, which became an incorporated society ''a couple of days ago'', is made up of representatives from five different regional trusts including Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Christchurch and Otago.
Access to government funding was the main reason for a national body and Mr Sunitsch said it was the first of its kind in New Zealand and the first in the world.
Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse national body spokesman Ken Clearwater said the Government no longer wanted to fund individual groups so setting up a national body would help.
It would also enable them to align with other groups and they were also looking to have support group leaders NZQA trained, he said.
The Ministry of Social Development was contacted but could not provide comment at the time.
The Otago support group meets monthly, in Dunedin, on a Monday night.
