|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Community Action Against Asthma (CAAA)
Nearly 150 wave one families received the intensive intervention which began in March 2000 and consisted of at least nine home visits. Starting in May of 2001, wave two families began receiving this intensive intervention and later in the year after a transition visit, wave one families began receiving the less frequent “support” visits, expected to total three per year. The Community Environmental Specialists (CES’s) conducted these home visits which were tailored to the individual needs of the families and involved help with a variety of topics including cleaning, stopping smoking, asthma education, and pest control. Because of the ongoing recognition of the
tremendous need to address the problem of household pests--particularly
cockroaches and mice--which are major asthma triggers for many children,
the CES’s continue to conduct integrated pest management (IPM) in the
homes of wave two families as they had with wave one families.
Annual surveys of all project participants were conducted by community interviewers recruited, trained, and hired by the project prior to the start of the second wave visits. These surveys include a caregiver interview, a household walk-through, household dust collection and a child survey. These surveys were repeated in 2002.
[ top ]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This
problem is most often credited to the old, dilapidated housing stock in
much of the target area. For the more serious cockroach
infestations, the CES’s continued to work with a professional pest control
company and treated over thirty wave two homes. Helping families
control these pests has markedly improved the quality of life for many
families participating in the project and is noted by the CES’s as one of
the most positive contributions of the project.
Activities
to retain participants conducted the past year include: the
publication of two more newsletters (which included a raffle and a
contest) a fact sheet, a holiday card, and birthday cards, which were sent
to all participants. Also every season each family is visited by an
airwatch or diary distributor and receives at least two telephone calls.
The project also had a party attended by over 200 people to celebrate and
appreciate the families’ contributions to the project.