Steps to Creating Asthma Friendly Environments

To promote successful implementation, these seven steps are especially helpful to guide and assist in creating supportive environments:

  1. Establish a process to identify children and youth with asthma on an annual basis.
  2. Allow children/youth with asthma easy access to (fast-acting) inhalers.
  3. Establish a process for handling worsening asthma.
  4. Identify and reduce exposure to common asthma triggers within the environment.
  5. Encourage children/youth with asthma to participate in all activities, especially physical activities, to the best of their abilities.
  6. Provide staff, parent(s)/guardian(s), and children/youth opportunities to learn about asthma.
  7. Collaborate with families, health care professionals, and staff to create asthma friendly environments.

Sample Tools to Support Creating Asthma Friendly Environments

School Board Tools

The following Asthma Management Tools provide implementation tips for key members of the school community to support creating asthma friendly school environments:

Child Care Tools

The following Responsibility Checklists summarize the responsibilities for key members of the child care community to support creating asthma friendly child care centres:

Community Based Programs Tools

The following Management of Asthma Tools provide implementation tips for program supervisors, program leaders, instructors, coaches, and volunteers to support creating asthma friendly school environments: