Let’s build some Bridges

n/a

As a Respiratory Therapist, Ive worked with the entire age range of asthmatics , from infants to adults, both in the hospital setting and out. As a health advocate I’ve tried my best to educate health professional and ordinary people about severe asthma the various aspects of living with a chronic lung disease. I’m ashamed to say though, that Ive never really never given much thought about how the elementary school system deals with asthmatic children. This is major short shortsightedness on my part, because school aged children represent the largest segment of the asthmatic population, and children with uncontrolled asthma often grow up to be adults with uncontrolled asthma. Im a classic example of what could potentially happen when asthma isn’t managed properly in those formative years.

Thanks to the folks at GSK, my eyes have been opened a little wider. Myself, along with a few other patient advocates and health bloggers were invited to Denver Colorado to check out a pilot program that they’ve been co-sponsoring at 28 elementary schools in Denver and Hartford. The name of the project is called “Building Bridges for Asthma Control“.

The Building Bridges program is all about improving asthma control in school aged children and ensuring that the schools have the tools needed to obtain that goal. It’s brilliant concept that’s catching on, and after attending this meeting and hearing about all the positive outcomes, my hope is that more and more schools throughout the country will adopt similar programs.

Rather than bore you with a play by play of the conference itself, here’s the a video clip produced by GSK that captures the essence the program. We viewed the same video at the conference and got to meet and chat and with with all the people in the video.

The big take away from this presentation, at least for me, is that everyone in our society benefits when we’re able to recognize, control and prevent asthma from getting worse beginning at the earliest age possible. And what better place to do this, than where kids spend most of their daytime hours. I sure wish we had a program like this in my school when I was growing up. Who knows how different life may have turned out.

Note to my readers:
GSK provided reimbursement for my travel expenses to attend this event, but I wrote this post voluntarily and was not paid to do so. Regardless of any perceived incentives, I only write what Im passionate about and this is one of those topics that fits into that category
My friend Kerri, whose views on this very subject I totally share, wrote an excellent article prior to the event.

http://breathinstephen.com/