New Year Honours: Northlander Chris Rogan made ONZM for alcohol harm reduction work

Mangawhai woman Chris Rogan has been appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the New Year Honours list for services to alcohol harm reduction

When Mangawhai woman Chris Rogan started working to raise awareness of and care for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) more than 25 years ago, it was a largely hidden problem with very little publicity.

Now her unstinting work to raise awareness of FASD, and prevent alcohol harm, has seen Rogan made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the New Year Honours list.

Christine Anne Rogan received the honour for services to alcohol harm reduction, and she said like any work, there’s an entire team - individuals and organisations - that deserve the recognition, and she has dedicated the honour to them all.

She retired this year from her role as health promotion adviser at Alcohol Healthwatch and is acknowledged as having contributed to all aspects and progress concerning alcohol harm reduction in New Zealand since 1996.

Rogan has worked to ensure that the lifelong disability of FASD is recognised, supported and prevented, often against stigma, blame and prejudice associated with the disorder. She connected service providers, researchers and families through the Fetal Alcohol Network of New Zealand, which she established in 2005.

She facilitated the first FASD multi-disciplinary diagnostic team training in New Zealand and supported clinicians to travel to Canada to learn more about FASD diagnosis. She co-established FASD-CAN (Care Action Network) which became an incorporated society in 2013.

She hosted the first national FASD Awareness Day in 2013 and has since organised annual activities. To address gaps in FASD-informed practice across sectors, she developed and delivered multiple training sessions to mainstream and iwi-based providers. She organised a 2014 symposium which called for urgent action on FASD, contributing to the development of New Zealand’s first FASD action plan.

Rogan also led a petition to Parliament in the early 2000s for pregnancy warning labels on alcohol products and continued advocacy until the transtasman regulatory authority FSANZ voted in 2020 to mandate a best practice pregnancy warning label for alcohol products.

‘’When I started more than 25 years ago it was hard slog trying to make changes. We had a real alcohol culture but I worked with some amazing people and organisations to make things change, and they did.’’

Rogan said the honour is for all the people she worked with and she was delighted to have been able to make a difference in such an important area.

She said FASD is a far bigger problem than people realised when she started her work but now society was more aware and taking action, and she could take some credit for that.

‘’The scary thing is alcohol is by far the most popular and most dangerous drug there is, but it’s legal. We have had to change attitudes towards alcohol use to make any difference. More work is still needed too.’’