The Erie County Health Department's Asthma Response Team (ART) is an in-home intervention designed to lessen the burden of asthma on participating families through a two-pronged approach of asthma education and environmental trigger reduction.
In a unique approach, outreach workers performing the home-visits are both licensed code enforcement officials and certified asthma educators. In one comprehensive visit, asthmatics and their families receive a complete environmental assessment, including products and services designed to reduce exposure to household triggers, and a complete education visit encompassing disease physiology, medications, self-management strategies, and evaluation. Families enrolled in the program receive a minimum of two follow-up visits and are tracked for at least a year.
Currently a component of Erie County's New York State Department of Health-funded HEALTHY NEIGHBORHOODS PROGRAM, the Asthma Response Team is able to reach asthmatics and their families in the City of Buffalo and throughout Erie County.