I work in the North East Independent School District (NEISD) in San Antonio, Texas as the Director of Asthma Education and I want to introduce you to our Asthma Blow Out! events that we run in our district.
Asthma Blow Out! events focus on asthma control by highlighting four components – awareness, medication, environment and education. We hold these events by rotating throughout the district by cluster (all elementary and middle schools that feed into a high school). We choose a cluster based on disease prevalence rates and minimize barriers for attendance by holding events at locations (usually the high school campus) that are accessible to the students and families in the particular neighborhoods we want to reach.
Each event is divided into three educational levels: parents, elementary students and secondary students. Before families enter into their specific levels, we offer parents and their children with asthma the opportunity to meet one-on-one with volunteer respiratory therapists who review the correct methods for using asthma medications and devices, and the student’s level of asthma control by using the Asthma Control Test. This format is a great way for people to have specialized, uninterrupted time with a medical professional, especially those who might not have that chance with their primary care physicians – if they have a PCP at all.
We also have education events for parents, elementary and secondary students. In our parent group, volunteer asthma specialty physicians lead four twenty-minute educational sessions on asthma control topics: awareness, medication, environment and education. Elementary school students go to ‘hands-on’ fun stations taught by NEISD’s school nurses and PE teachers who have been trained on the asthma curriculum objectives. Secondary students watch mini video versions of the physician sessions and do teambuilding activities, like rock climbing, to encourage a sense of connection and support within the group.
Each Asthma Blow Out! event is held during the week, in the evening. We offer incentives to parents and students to participate – such as dinner, free (donated) spacers, extra gym time and/or other health or academic-based prizes for students who attend. We’ve discovered that the incentives should vary based on which school community we’re in. Our first Asthma Blow Out! event attracted around 100 families and has since grown to anywhere from 1,000-2,000 people in attendance.
The Asthma Blow Out! events are very rewarding because they’re a great way to get families thinking about asthma management, raise their expectations of control and provide them the tools and resources to achieve it. Our community outreach health events are designed to be a program of interaction with the entire NEISD community (students, parents, taxpayers, businesses) in addressing common medical issues that our students/families face that have demonstrated to be an obstacle to their educational capacity and quality of life. With the success of the NEISD Asthma Blow Out! Model, NEISD now provides community outreach health events for other health topics too, including diabetes prevention/management, metabolic syndrome and mental wellness.
What do you do in your school or community to promote asthma management education?
If you are interested in learning more about Asthma Blow Out! or want to plan something similar in your community, please contact me at drhode@neisd.net.
