 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Jeanette F. Donald, MS and Katherine Pruitt. American Lung Association, 1150 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036-3816, 202-785-3355, jdonald@lungusadc.org
The American Lung Association (ALA) in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control Division of Adolescent and School Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association of School Nurses, and the National Education Association Health Information Network has developed an Asthma-Friendly Schools Initiative (ASFI) designed to assist schools and communities in creating a comprehensive asthma management program in the schools. Utilizing input from all partners and national experts and the recommendations from the ALA/Kaiser Permanente report Asthma Prevention, Management, and Prevention: Community-Based Approaches for the New Millennium as a framework, the ALA has developed a toolkit to assist communities and schools in designing and implementing their individual comprehensive asthma management programs.
To validate the initiative and the toolkit, ALA is undertaking a three year validation process including implementation in four distinct communities, scheduled to begin in April of 2003. The AFSI toolkit is designed to be customized in each site which has led to a unique evaluation process that includes standard questions for each of the four sites (for comparison between sites) and then additional questions geared directly to each of the sites and their custom plan (to evaluate how well each site met its individual goals). Evaluation tools are designed to capture how the initiative and toolkit implementation affect asthma in schools (including absenteeism, nurse visits, medication usage, and written asthma policies and procedures) and the ease of customization and implementation of the initiative (how each site chooses to implement the initiative and how well it works for that community).
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Asthma, School Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: American Lung Association
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Consultant, Project Manager, Asthma-Friendly Schools Initiative