HISTORY

Our experience in educating the community on how to control and manage asthma began in 1998 with a small grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With the guidance of Dr. Victoria Persky from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Lenore Coover, a registered nurse and expert on asthma education and management, and Fayette Bright from EPA, we trained three residents who lived in the Robert Taylor Homes Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) development, and Geraldine Penny Walton, who at that time was doing community organizing for the Federation, on what indoor conditions trigger asthma and what were the best strategies for making sure that asthma was being properly managed and treated by a qualified physician. This team then went door to door in the Robert Taylor Homes housing development and identified families who had members with asthma.

Our educators helped families understand how rodents, dust, pet hair, mole, smoking, and roaches can all serve to aggravate asthma. The educators helped families understand how they could reduce those triggers by quitting smoking or at a minimum not smoking in the presence of those with asthma, using non-toxic pest control methods, using plastic mattress and pillow covers, and demanding that CHA repair leaking pipes so as to minimize these indoor environmental triggers of asthma. The educators also began instructing families on how to properly use inhalers, spacers, nebulizers and peak flow meters to manage their asthma. Families were instructed on the importance of having an asthma care plan and that they needed to have their asthma managed by a physician who specialized in pulmonary medicine or allergies. Too many of the residents used the emergency room as their primary care facility and sought medical attention only when they were having great difficulty in breathing.

One of the key reasons why this project met with such success is that it was residents who lived in the community who were doing the outreach and education. They were going door-to-door and engaging residents who often knew them or could easily relate to them in conversations about asthma.

Over the past eight years we have continued to use this basic model to educate residents on the Southside of Chicago including the CHA housing developments of Robert Taylor, Ida B. Wells, Madden Park, Stateway Gardens, Dearborn Homes, Rockwell Gardens and Washington Park. In the course of our work we have trained over 20 community residents in the techniques of doing community asthma outreach and education. We have reached over 2,000 families in the course of our work.

Concurrent with the initiation of our first community asthma health and education and outreach program in 1998, the Federation organized and staffed the Grand Boulevard Asthma Coalition. This Coalition, made up of health providers, researchers, advocates, community based and public agencies, , and community residents, brought to our attention the impact on outdoor air quality that the demolition of the public housing buildings along the State Street corridor were having on persons with asthma and other respiratory health diseases. As a result, the Coalition brought pressure to bear on the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Department of Health, both who were members of the Coalition, to more effectively address the impact the demolition process was having on the health of community residents.

CHA began holding its contractors accountable to using best practice measures such as watering down sites during demolition and making other changes in the demolition practices that minimized the release of dust and other particulate matter in the air. At least one contractor did not have their demolition contract renewed because they did not comply with CHA’s guidelines.

The Coalition worked closely with the Chicago Department of Health (CDOH) to insure that the community was informed of what steps to take when they noticed high levels of dust in the air as a result of demolition activity. We set up a process where residents called the Federation when they noticed high dust levels. We would then call CHA and CDOH, who would in turn send monitors out to investigate the causes of the high dust levels. The Chicago Department of Environment also began monitoring dust levels being generated by the demolition of CHA high rises.

As a result of this work, the Federation began working with Dr. Sam Dorevitch at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health to conduct research on the impact outdoor air quality was having on respiratory health. Again, we trained community residents to work with families in Robert Taylor and Stateway Gardens and paid them for their participation in the research. This research determined that there is a 50% increase in particulate matter air pollution half a block downwind from a demolition site. The research also found that when community residents observed dusty conditions, particulate matter concentrations are double the baseline values.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size	Last Modified
AsthmaActionPlan.pdf	Asthma Action Plan	364 Kb	19/11/08 12:19