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Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics Honors People Who 'Make a Difference'

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 May 2005, 18:00 CDT

FAIRFAX, Va., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 3, 2005, Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) will honor three groups with the national "Making a Difference Award" for asthma education and innovative asthma care.

Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, teamed

up with a Missouri Medicaid HMO to test a new model for healthcare

delivery to children who have asthma. This program put patient care

decisions back where they belong -- with patients, physicians and nurse

educators. Not only did patients benefit from this approach to health

care as made evident by the decrease in asthma-related emergency room

visits and hospital admissions, but the health plan also saved money.

The Pediatric/Adult Asthma Coalition of New Jersey (PACNJ) trained school

nurses across the state how to manage asthma in the school setting and

developed a program to be used by school nurses to educate school

faculty. In a preliminary survey, 40 percent of school nurses reported a

decrease in asthma-related school dismissals after nurses and faculty

completed the asthma training. The success of this program led PACNJ to

develop similar trainings for childcare providers.

Elizabeth Seickel, RN, BSN, AE-C, of Massapequa, New York tackled asthma

education from a different angle -- she developed an Asthma Awareness

Patch Program for the Girl Scouts. Elizabeth originally came up with the

idea to help her daughter. Four years later, Elizabeth is working on a

national Asthma Awareness Patch Program to be launched at the Girl

Scouts' National Latina Conference this July! Materials for this program

are non-medical to avoid intimidating leaders who don't have medical

backgrounds, and resources are bilingual. This program could change the

lives of families nationwide.

Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill (AADCH) is an annual educational event held the first Wednesday of May in Washington, DC. Through this event, AANMA provides a public forum to brief lawmakers about issues affecting people with asthma and allergies. The event is open to the public and features free asthma screenings, pulmonary function tests and medication safety checks.

Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating suffering and death due to asthma, allergies and related conditions. Founded in 1985, AANMA's core areas of expertise are education, advocacy and outreach. AANMA's flagship publications -- Allergy & Asthma Today magazine and The MA Report newsletter -- and Breatherville.org Web site are consumer lifelines to medical news and healthy living. For more information about the Making a Difference Awards or Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill, contact AANMA at 800-878-4403 or visit http://www.breatherville.org/.

Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics

CONTACT: Melissa Hess, +1-202-530-4552, or Melissa_Hess@was.bm.com, forAllergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics

Web site: http://www.breatherville.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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