Letitia’s Message

It has certainly been a busy, interesting and challenging year for the ARFNZ whānau. As we wind-down for the festive season, it’s important to look back at what was achieved over the past year – despite the challenges.

This November, the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill and the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act came into effect to finally regulate vaping. The Foundation has been advocating for the regulation of vaping products in Aotearoa since 2017, and in particular, addressing the ‘no holds barred’ marketing of vaping products to youth – it was good to finally see all of our hard work come to fruition!

Earlier this year we launched the Don’t Get Sucked In website to encourage teens not to pick up vaping (or smoking) in the first place, by challenging them to do the research and think critically about vaping. The website publishes and disseminates information and research about vaping products and their use, and sits within the wider body of work conducted by the Foundation to reduce the appeal of vaping (and smoking) to children and young people, and to promote healthy lungs.

In November, the Foundation also formed the Vaping Educational Advisory Group (VEAG), consisting of 13 specialists in their field to regularly review the content of the Don’t Get Sucked In website and its resources. We look forward to feedback on the website from the community, and will regularly update and provide resources based on this.

Shortly, the highly anticipated inaugural Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) New Zealand Guidelines will be published which will follow on from the updated Child Asthma Guidelines, and Adolescent and Adult Asthma Guidelines published mid-2020. These guidelines are pivotal to why the Foundation exists – creating national initiatives that improve respiratory health outcomes for the 700,000 people living with a respiratory condition in New Zealand.

The work undertook to produce these guidelines was unsurmountable, not only by the Foundation’s team, led by Joanna Turner, our Research and Education Manager, but also the numerous voluntary hours of the working groups who wrote the guidelines. The Foundation is extremely fortunate to have a dedicated Scientific Advisory Board of the highest calibre involved in critical projects such as these.

Finally, a highlight for the Foundation was hosting the biennial New Zealand Respiratory Conference. We had to make a decision very early on in the year as to whether we should invest in this face-to-face conference during this unpredictable COVID-19 climate. The team had been registered as delegates or exhibitors at many national conferences this year which at the last minute had gone to ‘virtual only’, so we knew that there was always a risk that NZRC 2020 would need to do the same.

With the support from our board, it was because of this that we also invested in a simultaneous virtual conference should a COVID-19 lockdown level occur in Wellington.

We were so ecstatic to have the conference go forward, and not only that, but a record number of over 200 attendees joined us from across the healthcare sector! This year the programme included presentations on vaping, healthy homes, COVID-19, and air quality. The key highlight had to be the ‘Te Whare Tapa Whā’ plenary session, where Māori health and housing inequities, and community programmes were explored and ideas exchanged.

It’s been an interesting 2020 to say the least, but the Foundation never took our foot off the gas – we were adaptable and we delivered. We expect the start of 2021 to be no different.

Meri kirihimete

Letitia