Creating asthma friendly environments allows children and youth with asthma to:
- maximize their potential for growth, development, and achievement
- limit school and child care absenteeism
- participate in physical activity
- experience positive educational, social, physical and health benefits
- develop lifelong skills for managing their asthma (Cicutto et al., 2006)
To promote successful implementation, these seven steps are especially helpful to guide and assist in creating supportive environments:
- Establish a process to identify children and youth with asthma on an annual basis.
- Allow children/youth with asthma easy access to (fast-acting) inhalers.
- Establish a process for handling worsening asthma.
- Identify and reduce exposure to common asthma triggers within the environment.
- Encourage children/youth with asthma to participate in all activities, especially physical activities, to the best of their abilities.
- Provide staff, parent(s)/guardian(s), and children/youth opportunities to learn about asthma.
- Collaborate with families, health care professionals, and staff to create asthma friendly environments.
Sample Tools to Supporting Creating Asthma Friendly Environments
Creating asthma friendly and supportive environments is a shared responsibility that requires a team approach. Collaborating with home, school, and community partners supports the creation of asthma friendly environments, which includes:
- children and youth with asthma
- parent(s)/guardian(s)
- health care providers
- program leaders, coaches, volunteers, etc.
- school and child care centre staff (Cicutto & Murphy, 2013)
School Community Tools
The following tools provide implementation tips for key members of the school community to support creating asthma friendly school environments:
- School Board Implementation Tips
- Administrator Implementation Tips
- Teacher Implementation Tips
- Parent(s)/Guardian(s) (of Students with Asthma) Implementation Tips
- Student Implementation Tips
Child Care Tools
The following tools provide implementation tips for key members of the child care community to support creating asthma friendly child care centres:
- Child Care Administrator Implementation Tips
- Child Care Provider Implementation Tips
- Parent(s)/Guardian(s) (of Children with Asthma) Implementation Tips
Community-Based Programs Tools
The following tools provide implementation tips for program supervisors, program leaders, instructors, coaches, and volunteers to support creating asthma friendly communities:
- Children/Youth Implementation Tips
- Coach/Instructor Implementation Tips
- Parent(s)/Guardian(s) Implementation Tips
Creating Asthma Friendly Environments in Different Settings
Different settings (for example, schools, child care centres, etc.) can have different needs when it comes to creating asthma friendly environments. Access the setting page that is most applicable to you for setting-specific considerations and information:
References
Cicutto, L., Conti, E., Evans, H., Lewis, R., Murphy, S., Rautiainen, K. C., Sharrard, S., and Varga, J. (2006). Creating asthma friendly schools: A public health approach. Journal of School Health, 76(6), 255–258.
Cicutto, L., To, T., & Murphy, S. (2013). A randomized controlled trial of a public health nurse delivered asthma program to elementary schools. Journal of School Health, 83, 876–884.
