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Establishing a Peak Performance Program in Your Community Schools
Health education by a respiratory therapist is a powerful tool for helping children gain the motivation and skill to control their asthma. The strategies and suggestions in this program are options that the respiratory therapist can teach school staff to use to assist in the management of asthma.
Much of the day-to-day responsibility for managing asthma falls on the child and his or her parents. However, because children spend so much time in the school and with the majority of states having laws allowing students to self carry and administer medication, school staff can, and should, become a partner in the day-to-day management of the disease. Their active participation in a partnership with the clinician, child and parents can help the child breathe easier and participate fully in school activities.
School personnel are often frightened of asthma episodes and are often not well prepared to cope with them. As a result, children are sometimes barred from sports or not permitted to take medications at school. As a respiratory therapist, you can assist school staff by providing information that will help to alleviate these fears.
In addition, children occasionally have difficulty accepting that they have asthma. Poor self-image and feelings of social stigma can occur. Other children may not understand the disease and contribute to this problem with teasing, etc. As a respiratory care practitioner, you can give classroom presentations to educate all children about asthma along with the school’s regular health education programs and help eliminate the stigma that children with asthma sometimes suffer.
Peak Performance USA encourages open communications, those supporting the school’s efforts to improve prevention and treatment of symptoms. The child, the parents, and the school should be encouraged to assume significant roles in the management of the disease. Initial points to cover in establishing a Peak Performance USA program include:
- The nature of the proposed program. Your program can take many forms. For example you may choose to offer only guidance and information resources or you may wish greater involvement. Your program may also assist the school nurse in establishing school wide in-service programs or asthma clubs for children. Other forms of the program might consist of presentations to students with asthma or even presentations to entire classrooms.
- The goal of treatment, (i.e. to enable the patient to take part in all normal activities without incurring symptoms).
- The chronic nature of asthma.
- Discussion about the use of a peak flow meter for assistance in disease management.
- Answers to questions about asthma.
It is important that students with asthma have immediate access to their medication. 47 states presently have laws that protect a student’s right to carry and self-administer their lifesaving asthma medications as prescribed by their physician. If your school does not have their policy in place, work with the administration, school board, school nurse and local physicians to establish policies that comply with state law. If your state does not have a law or you have any questions, visit http://www.breatherville.org/cityhall/ch_childrights.htm.