Helping Children with Asthma

El Rio’s Pediatric Inner-City Asthma Program is a free program for children ages 5-15 years that can help you learn ways to control your asthma.

Program Includes:

• Asthma education for parents and children
• Free allergy testing
• Free breathing tests
• Free spacer and peak flow meter
• Free pillow and mattress covers

Rewards for participating children

Don’t let asthma slow your child down!  Additional Information: Tucson is ranked as the nation’s number one asthma hotspot. Since 1980, the asthma rate among Tucson’s children and adolescents has doubled, hitting hardest among the inner city poor. Currently, 18 percent of Tucson’s children (6,000 of El Rio’s pediatric patients) are affected by asthma. This amount is double the adult rate, which is already the second highest in the nation.

Developed in collaboration with The University of Arizona, El Rio’s Pediatric Inner-City Asthma Program provides life-saving medication and equipment, as well as preventive education, for asthmatic children from low-income families. The Program has contributed to a 60 percent reduction in emergency room visits to two Tucson hospitals. The program model is unique in that it comprehensively assesses the full range of environmental triggers for each child (including those in the home), designs customized treatments and interventions while educating children and their parents in their effective use. This free program includes bilingual/bicultural classes and individual counseling to empower families to provide quality care for their children with asthma and reduce the stigma associated with an asthma diagnosis. The Program also provides in-home allergen assessment, bilingual and culturally sensitive instruction on reducing the child’s exposure to environmental triggers.

Specific components of the Program include the following:

Individual Assessment: Following the child’s allergy tests and breathing test, an individual action plan is developed, teaching the child to keep an asthma diary to track medication and peak flow rates.

In-Home Environmental Assessment: Visual examination, an interview, and evidence from vacuuming help identify specific allergens in the home, including mold and mildew, dust mites, pet dander, tobacco smoke, cockroach and rodent residue. Caretakers learn how to reduce the incidence of these triggers in the home. Results of the assessment are sometimes used to persuade landlords to make further improvements in the home.

Group Class: Children and families meet to help identify and reduce triggers and manage attacks, and to offer each other support.

Individual Session: With the child and the family, project personnel review the medicine plan from a doctor, test results, and the environmental changes the family needs to make in order to control their child’s asthma.

Provision of Supplies: Asthma patients receive equipment kits, including nebulizer compressors, spacers, and peak flow meters. Children also receive mattresses and pillow covers that control dust mites. Families receive cleaning supplies, HEPA air filters for the child’s bedroom, and a specially adapted vacuum cleaner to help reduce the allergens that trigger asthma attacks. As appropriate, program personnel will also help families rectify environmental conditions. (For example, providing lab test results documenting the presence of mold in a rental unit.) The schools these children attend receive a packet with spacers and peak flow meters to help the school monitor patients while at school and ensure schools have proper on-site support to administer medication.