The health board also promoted individual involvement in self-management groups for those with respiratory illness, she said.
It was also working with GPs on prevention measures such as immunisation.
Ms Stanbrook-Mason said the Whanganui health board supported Healthy Homes and support for smokers to quit. It was also increasing its capacity to educate other health providers, patients and families.
The Asthma Foundation's strategy report said children, people on low incomes, and Maori and Pacific people experienced a much greater burden of respiratory ill-health than other New Zealanders.
Sir Mason Durie of Massey University said respiratory diseases not only reflected the health status of individuals but were also a comment on the environments where they lived, worked, and played.
Respiratory disease refers to conditions which impair the airways and lungs including asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer and obstructive sleep apnoea.