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Leveraging Partnerships: Families, Schools, and Providers Working Together to Improve Asthma Management

  • Allergies and the Environment (M Hernandez, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Asthma is one of the most common illnesses of school-aged children and can lead to both health and educational disparities. Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds and racial/ethnic minorities suffer the greatest impact. They often lack the asthma self-management skills to successfully monitor, navigate, and negotiate appropriate asthma care. School settings are a strategic point of contact for this additional support. School nurses can monitor for signs of asthma worsening, manage symptoms, provide care coordination, and reinforce self-management skills. Likewise, school-based asthma programs have the potential to reduce health and educational disparities, but it is the strong linkage to the asthma care provider that is critical to successful school-based asthma management. Healthcare providers are encouraged to establish partnerships with families through patient-centered care and schools through clear communication and care coordination to ensure asthma is well controlled so the child is in school and ready to learn.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA

    Melanie Gleason, Bridget M. Raleigh & Stanley J. Szefler

  2. Childrens’ Hospital Colorado, Breathing Institute, 13123 East 16th Avenue, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

    Melanie Gleason, Bridget M. Raleigh & Stanley J. Szefler

  3. Clinical Science Program, University of Colorado Denver AMC, Denver, CO, USA

    Lisa Cicutto

  4. National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, USA

    Lisa Cicutto

  5. Denver Public Schools, 780 Grant Street, Denver, CO, 80203, USA

    Christy Haas-Howard

Authors
  1. Melanie Gleason
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  2. Lisa Cicutto
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  3. Christy Haas-Howard
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  4. Bridget M. Raleigh
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  5. Stanley J. Szefler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melanie Gleason.

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Conflict of Interest

Ms. Gleason reports grants from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and from Glaxo Smith Kline. Dr. Szefler reports grants from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Cancer, Cardiovascular, and Pulmonary Disease Program; other from Roche, from AstraZeneca, from Aerocrine, from Daiichi Sankyo, and from Boehringer-Ingelheim; personal fees from Merck, from Genentech, and from Novartis. Ms. Cicutto, Ms. Haas-Howard, and Ms. Raleigh declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this manuscript.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Funding

Step Up Asthma Program has had continuous funding from CDPHE for 9 out of the last 10 years. Additional support was provided by grants from Glaxo Smith Kline, the Caring for Colorado Foundation, and the Denver Post Charities (a fund of the McCormick Foundation).

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Allergies and the Environment

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Gleason, M., Cicutto, L., Haas-Howard, C. et al. Leveraging Partnerships: Families, Schools, and Providers Working Together to Improve Asthma Management. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 16, 74 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-016-0655-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-016-0655-0

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