Asthma is the number one chronic illness-related reason students in Illinois miss school – adding up to over 313,000 days out of the classroom each year. Working with children and teens to better understand and manage asthma can help them stay in class, prevent attacks and remain healthy.
RHA’s asthma program staff will provide training in schools across Illinois.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) recently awarded Respiratory Health Association a Healthy Community Investments Grant to bring school-based asthma education to more people in Chicago and throughout Illinois. RHA will focus on sharing prevention programs with schools in high need communities across the state during the 2019-20 school year. This focus comes in part from a 2018 RHA report which shows the majority of asthma-related emergency room visits are African American children – at a rate five times higher than white children.
Two National Health Corps (NHC) members and four RHA asthma program staff will work with school administrators and nurses to schedule sessions and deliver the evidence-based Fight Asthma Now© (FAN) program to students. FAN helps students identify and avoid triggers and learn how to manage their medications. Students also receive a free spacer to help medicines work more effectively.
With the new grant funding, RHA will provide training to an additional 1,000 elementary, middle and high school students living with asthma over the course of the school-year. Data from past programs shows that 80% of students will better understand triggers and warning signs of asthma attacks, and the value of long-term medications and spacers. At least 75% of students will say they want to talk with an adult in their home about an Asthma Action Plan and asthma medications.
RHA has delivered FAN to more than 16,000 students in Chicago to date, and has also provided training to health department staff in southern Illinois. Asthma educators serving schools in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California also received training to support new asthma programs in these areas.
If you are an administrator, nurse, teacher, parent or community member interested in bringing the FAN program to a school near you, please contact Mary Rosenwinkel, Program Coordinator at mrosenwinkel@resphealth.org or (312) 628-0227. You can also learn more and submit a request with our online form.
Students who participated in the 2018-19 FAN sessions shared thanks with RHA staff.
Students who participated in the 2018-19 FAN sessions shared thanks with RHA staff.