Health Care Setting

A resource guide to help educational support groups get organized, publicize and remain successful. Great for people who want to start an asthma or allergy support group and for existing group leaders who want to strengthen their programs. Filled with stories of success and struggle from other group leaders, medical advisors and group members across the country. A companion CD provides additional tips.

The 2005 report, Ethnic Disparities in the Burden and Treatment of Asthma, co-authored by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) and the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC), finds that the burden of asthma falls disproportionately on the black and Hispanic—largely Puerto Rican—populations in the U.S., and especially on minority children. These groups have disproportionately high rates of poor asthma outcomes, including hospitalizations and deaths.

ACT is an asthma education and self-management program designed for children ages 7 to 12 and their parents. The program is divided into three, 1.5-hour sessions in which the parents and children are taught in separate classrooms and then brought together at the end of each session to share their new knowledge. ACT teaches children to work in cooperation with their parents and health care professionals to improve their decision-making skills and self-management behaviors. This occurs through a series of interactive games and activities that teach children how to identify asthma-related symptoms, ways to communicate with adults, ways to avoid triggers, how to take preventive measures, and the appropriate use of medications.