Parents | Teachers | Health Professionals
Asthma affects over half a million children in Canada and is the leading cause of school absences. For Canadian children, asthma is the most common long-term respiratory disease and accounts for more hospitalizations than any other chronic illness. In particular, exercise-induced asthma symptoms are common among children, adolescents, and young adults. Because some children with exercise-induces asthma tend to avoid play, parents and teachers sometimes never realize the student is experiencing symptoms during exercise.
Parents and school staff need to work together to help control asthma symptoms for all students with asthma. Children with asthma often have symptoms at school; therefore it is very important to get the school involved in caring for a child's asthma. This is true even if the child has only a mild case of asthma and even for children who do not need to take medicines when they are at school. Most schools have several children with asthma, and so many teachers and principals may be very familiar with helping children with asthma. Still, it is important to take steps to ensure that students receive appropriate attention and that all the relevant school personnel are familiar with what is needed to help each child.
For more information about asthma in schools, please visit:
The Asthma Society of Canada conducted several focus groups last year with parents and teachers of children with asthma. This assessment revealed that parents want to be informed when their child is having asthma symptoms at school. Many parents also expressed fear and a lack of confidence in their child’s school’s ability to handle an emergency situation. Teachers, on the other hand, wanted to know how to manage an asthma attack and expressed frustration about the variability of parents’ knowledge of asthma.
It became clear from this research that both parents and teachers want to know how to identify the child who is at risk for an asthma attack, what signs and symptoms to monitor and how teachers can communicate that information to the parent. There is no cure for asthma, but it can be controlled so the child is symptom-free and able to participate in the same activities as his/her peers.
As a result, the Asthma Society of Canada piloted an asthma awareness program in the fall of 2004 that targeted school teachers and principals. The Asthma Basics 123: an Action Kit for Canadian School was mailed to 1,100 elementary schools across Canada and provided practical information and tips for teachers and principals on steps to take to effectively manage asthma in the school environment.
In addition, this section of our website provides parents, teachers and healthcare professionals with the latest tools and resources for the management of asthma at school, including the management of attacks.
For more information on the Asthma Basics 123 program and/or to access the latest resources, visit the following sections:
- Parents: Provides information on what parents
can do to help children achieve symptom-free asthma.
Resources include a sample Asthma Action Plan,
Student Data Form and Peak Flow Instructions.
|
- Teachers: Provides information for principals
and teachers on how to manage asthma in the
classroom and communicate to parents of children
with asthma. Resources include the Asthma Basics
1-2-3 Action Kit materials, a sample Medication
Tracking Form and Letter to Parents.
|
- Healthcare Professionals: Provides resources for
healthcare professionals, such as certified asthma
educators and school nurses, to support community
asthma education efforts. Resources include links to
educational booklets, brochures and posters.
|
This program is currently being formally evaluated and we invite you to contribute to the evaluation process by contacting us with your feedback at
info@asthma.ca.
This program has been supported in part by a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
For more information about asthma in schools, please visit:
PDF documents require Acrobat Reader. If you need this application, please click here to download it.
|
