DC Asthma Partnership E-Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 2 Summer 2011

DC Asthma Partnership Recognizes the Importance of Social Marketing

Have you seen the new DCAP Website? Have you Liked Us on Facebook? Did you know you can post your tweet to our site?

Childhood Asthma Surveillance Presents Challenges By LaVerne Jones, DC DOH, DC CAN

Researchers from the George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services, School of Medicine and School of Law outline the challenges of collecting data on children with asthma in a recently released policy brief entitled Addressing the Challenges of Reporting on Childhood Asthma in a Changing Health Care System: Building Better Evidence for High Performance. The publication provides an overview of pediatric asthma data collection processes in the United States, including types of data and specific asthma indicators. The authors detail several national data sets that relate directly to pediatric asthma surveillance. One of the datasets is the annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and its related Asthma Callback Survey, which collects data on emerging health problems, track health objectives, trends and prevalence, behaviors that lead to premature morbidity and mortality. The National Asthma Study (NAS), conducted in 2003-2004, provides data about prevalence, health and health care experiences of children with asthma primarily at a national level. A third dataset, the National Children's Study compiles data on environmental effects on health, including air, water, diet, sound, family dynamics, community and cultural influences, and genetics on the growth, development, and health of children. (continued on

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Inside this issue:

Breathe DC Helps Public Housing Residents Become Smoke Free DC CAN Partners with WPGC to Promote Asthma Awareness Whos Behind the DCAP Social Media Campaign? American Lung Association Offers Prep Course for AE-C DCAP SurveyHelp Strengthen Partnership Save the Date! 2

Asthma Action Plans Become More Provider Friendly

Asthma Action Plans (AAP) are ready and being distributed all over the District. The content of the AAP is basically the same. Some graphics were repositioned to allow for a patient label to be affixed to the form if needed. Also, an organization can reprint the form using their own logo in the upper right hand corner. The District of Columbia Department of Health (DC DOH), Asthma Control Program, DC Control Asthma Now (DC CAN) is grateful to the many clinicians at Childrens National Medical Center who were instrumental in the re-design of the form. The revised AAP form can be download from the DC Asthma Partnership (DCAP) website. For more information on printing the form, please contact Edwina Davis, Asthma Program Manager at 202-442-8113 or Edwina.Davis@dc.gov.

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Breathe DC Helps Public Housing Residents to Become Smoke Free By Daniel Weisshaar, Breathe DC at UMC
It has long been common knowledge that smoking and secondhand smoke exacerbate asthma and other respiratory diseases. Yet to date, only about 140 public housing developments across the United States (about 4%) have reported that they have voluntarily banned smoking in the units they manage. A resident who smokes in a single unit within a multiunit residential building puts the residents of the other units at risk. Given that tobacco smoke can move along air ducts, through cracks in the walls and floors, through elevator shafts, and along plumbing and electrical lines, the smoke affects other residents in their units. One of our main objectives is to lessen the dreadful impact of secondhand smoke, especially for children with asthma, who are prone to asthma attacks when exposed to smoking says Charles Debnam, Deputy Director for Health Education Services at Breathe DC. In order to address the smoking, and secondhand smoking issues, Breathe DC is currently working with residents from four DC Public Housing developments, the DC City Wide Advisory Board, DC Housing Authority, regional partners, and the DC Department of Health. This health promotion and prevention effort reaches out to public housing residents who smoke and educates them on the dangers that smoking poses on their own lives as well as the people around them. (continued on page 3)

DC CAN Partners with WPGC To Promote Asthma Awareness

For the next few months DC CAN will sponsor local radio DJ Big Tigger and his twitter question of the day for his listeners. Tigger can be heard weekly on WPGC 95.5 from 6:00 10:00 am. The goal of the social media campaign is to engage followers and build a community that shares information, best practices, and allows for lively discussions of challenges and successes related to asthma. As you may know, DC CAN has launched a social marketing campaign on Facebook and Twitter. The campaign can be found on Facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/dcasthma and on Twitter@dcasthma. The general public can find information, g et links to articles and join groups on Facebook to discuss Asthma and caring for asthma symptoms.

Whos Behind the DCAP Social Media Campaign?

DC DOH has partnered with local marketing firm Alston Marketing Group to develop a social media campaign to inform residents on how to manage and treat their asthma. The campaign was launched in August 2011 and will feature local residents and children in the campaign. Social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are key aspects of reaching the public and disseminating information. In addition the campaign will highlight information and aspects of asthma management in the District of Columbia. Alston Marketing Group was founded in 2002 and is a woman owned business headquartered in Washington, DC.

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Childhood Asthma Surveillance (continued from page 1)

The National Health Interview Study (NHIS) is a survey with a broad range of health topics, health status, insurance status, health care access, range of national health goals. Each of these and others serve as the foundation for childhood asthma surveillance in the nation. The results of the research indicate what data indicators are reported across the country. Lifetime and current prevalence, a measure of what proportion of children currently have asthma, is provided by a majority of US states and territories. Another important measure of asthma outcomes is heath care utilization, including emergency department and inpatient hospital utilization; like prevalence, most US states and territories report on this measure. Fewer states report on disease management indicators including use of asthma action plans and asthma education. Cost coverage data, a measure of growing importance in the current economic climate, is reported by less than one quarter of the states. Each of these measures, along with other key indicators, give insight into the state of asthma and asthma care in the nation. To read the full publication, connect to this link: http:// www.mcanonline.org/pdf/ AsthmaDataBrief.pdf

Breathe DC Helps Public Housing Residents to Become Smoke Free (continued from page 2)
Starting with a focused outreach effort executed by leaders and neighbors within the participating public housing developments, Breathe DC is implementing free 4 week 1 hour workshops that include the promotion of the 1-800-QUITNOW hotline and has sessions centered around creating a new healthy lifestyle including diet,, exercise, and avoiding smoking triggers. Along with helping residents to quit smoking Breathe DC is also focusing on empowering residents to work together as a community to educate the Housing Authority to implement policies around smoke free public housing developments. Through active community engagement and healthy lifestyles education, enforcement will be less of a challenge after the public housing developments pass new smoke free policies. For more information contact Daniel Weisshaar at 202-574-7033 or daniel@breathedc.org

American Lung Association Offers Preparatory Course for AE-C

The University of Maryland Childrens Hospital Joint Commission Pediatric Asthma Center of Excellence and Carroll Hospital Center Westminster Maryland are sponsoring a Guidelines Based Hands-On Asthma Training on October 21-22, 2011 from 8 am-5 pm (both days) at the University of Maryland Medical Center located at 22 S. Green Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. The Asthma Educator Institute is a two-day preparatory course for those qualified to take the National Asthma Educator Certification Board (NAECB) examination. The American Lung Association Asthma Educator Institute was developed in January of 2003 and was recently updated to reflect the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Expert Panel Report 3: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma. Registration is $250.00
For more information, contact Gabrielle Steele, Manager, Programs and Volunteers American Lung Association Serving DC, MD, VA, and NC at 910790-2141 or gsteele@lungusa.org.

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Take the DCAP SurveyHelp Strengthen Our Partnership!

In an effort to assess the strength of the District of Columbia Asthma Partnership, the DC Control Asthma Now State Asthma Program is implementing a two year evaluation initiative to assess specific components of the DC Asthma Partnership. These components include: 1) The organization of the partnership, 2) The perceived benefits to being a partner, 3) The efficiency of communication within the partnership, 4) Barriers to full participation in partnership initiatives and activities, and 5) The knowledge that partnership members have of the DC Control Asthma Now Program's Strategic Plan. This survey is the first step in identifying the strengths and opportunities for improvement of our partnership and building the foundation to fill any identified gaps and provide the best types of services and quality care to District resident affected by asthma. During the month of September, the survey will be sent to all DCAP members. We ask that you take a few minutes (approximately 10) to complete the survey. Your honest input is needed. Responses are anonymous and only aggregate data will be shared in the data report. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Georgia A. Henry, the DC CAN Program Evaluator at georgia.henry@dc.gov or 202-442-9357. https://www.surveymonkey.com/ s/DCAP

Save the Date!

DC CAN Steering Committee Meeting to be held on
Other regional American Lung Association Events: Freedom From Smoking Facilitator Workshop September 22 & 23, 2011, Washington DC

September 29, 2011 from 3-5 pm. Location to be announced.

The DC Asthma Partnership (DCAP) is a public-private partnership. Its mission is to reduce asthma morbidity and mortality and to improve the quality of life for residents of the District of Columbia. The DCAP includes more than 80 public and private agency representatives.