Hosted by the Hon. Casey Costello, Minister for Seniors and Associate Minister of Health a reception was held in Parliament celebrating Osteoporosis New Zealand and Excellence in Fragility Fracture Prevention and its World Class Fracture Liaison Services.  The event was attended by Ministers, MPs, senior government officials and representatives from allied organisations with keen interest in osteoporosis and bone health.  Attendees received addresses from the International Osteoporosis Foundation, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Adjunct Professor Paul Mitchell, Distinguished Professor Ian Reid and the Hon Casey Costello.  The event also provided an opportunity to introduce Stronger Together: A Collaborative Strategy for Bone Health in New Zealand, a comprehensive national strategy to optimise bone health throughout the life course.

 The Minister in her address to the attendees highlighted that as the Minister for Seniors and Associate Health Minister, she was pleased to host the celebration of the work of Osteoporosis New Zealand and Stronger Together Strategy that will be launched in 2025. She highlighted that this year Osteoporosis New Zealand celebrates 25 years as a charitable trust first established on World Osteoporosis Day in 1999.  She commended the work ONZ has been doing through its programmes of awareness, advocacy, and education and in particular, the work for fragility fracture care involving New Zealand’s Fragility Fracture Registry and Fracture Liaison Service. She noted ONZ’s achievements in such a short period of time as nothing short of remarkable, and the work that has been completed is recognised by peers across the globe as world leading.

As Minister of Maternity Health, Women’s Health and Seniors, she was delighted to see that a life-course approach to Bone Health is being taken with the focus on optimising bone health at every stage of life, from maternal nutrition through to healthy ageing. The Minister also noted the prevention of falls and fractures helps achieve key health priorities in the Government Policy Statement on Health, which lays out the high-level direction for the next three years.   The objectives and expectations build on the targets and focus on what government want to see across the health system – improved and more timely access to health services, and high-quality health services and what she has learned of the work of Osteoporosis New Zealand aligns with the government’s policy statement on health.

L – R.  John Mulka – ONZ, Paul Kennedy – ACC, Carolyn Cooper – Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner, Hon Casey Costello, Paul Mitchell – ONZ, Megan Main – ACC, Peter Fergusson – ONZ, Ian Reid – ONZ and Christine Gill – ONZ.