Asthma Education Program

Mobile Care Chicago has an opportunity to double its community impact in the next two years through its new Asthma Education Program.

70% of asthmatics have what’s known as “allergic-asthma,” in which common household factors like pet dander, dust, mold, tobacco, and street pollution can trigger serious asthma attacks. Because low-income children often cannot afford allergy tests, and therefore don’t know exactly how to remove triggers (some don’t even know they have allergies), they make up the bulk of asthma hospitalizations and perhaps even the bulk of fatalities.

Severe and life-threatening asthma attacks due to allergy irritants can be prevented through the following strategies:

• Provide allergy tests to asthma sufferers
• Follow up with detailed information to educate and empower families
• Make sure allergic-asthmatics have constant access to medical care
• Conduct home environmental assessments

With these four components—allergy testing, education, access to healthcare providers (in this case, Asthma Educators will be able to schedule appointments on our Asthma Van clinics as often as needed), and home inspections by professionals looking for asthma triggers—we can make sure that no child has to suffer through costly emergency room visits, long hospitalizations, missed school, or fatality due to a disease we know we can control with proper support.

In studies, Asthma Educators have reduced hospitalizations and ER visits by 81% and 64% respectively. Since we are targeting a very high-risk population, there is a possibility that our efforts will yield even more dramatic results.

When the Asthma Education Program is fully implemented, we will be able to assist over 1,000 of the highest-risk asthma sufferers. This will expand on our mission to drive hospitalization rates and school absenteeism to near zero for our patients (only 3% of our patients reported a hospital visit last year versus 40% before enrolling in our program).

We’re already getting started! Meet Kamari Thompson, one of our Asthma Educators.

Support the work of Asthma Educators with a Financial Contribution.