Maricopa County Asthma Coalition

Who is the Coalition?
The Coalition is a group of stakeholder that have come together to work in a collaborative effort to promote, preserve and protect the respiratory health of people living with asthma in Maricopa County by improving the quality of life.

Maricopa County Coalition members include representatives from state, county and local public health departments, environmental health agencies/experts, Governors Office for Children, community non-profit organizations, school heath nurses, head start administrative staff, health care professional, hospitals, community clinics, health care plans, business, pharmaceutical companies and parents of children with asthma. Our efforts are focused on Maricopa County, Arizona which is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in the nation. We currently have an e-mail list of 160 individuals. We meet bi-monthly as a full coalition. In addition we have an executive committee and three standing committees. Phoenix Children’s Hospital took the lead role in forming the Coalition several years ago and serves as fiduciary agent for the Coalition.

Our major programs include the following:

Head Start—Asthma Screening and education has been the major coalition focus for the past three years. The first two years we operated a limited program. Maricopa County Asthma Coalition (MCAC) developed the Asthma Prevention Program under a partnership with Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH) Breathmobile program. PCH serves as Fiscal Agent on this program, with the Coalition’s active participation in the program design, materials development and evaluation of the program. We have done asthma screening of approximately 2300 head start children in the South and West Phoenix area. (Highest incidence of asthma) We have also conducted asthma training for teacher/aids, train the trainer programs and parent/child training in the 123 classrooms in which we conducted the screening process.

Air Quality Flag Program – In May 2006 Air Quality Flag program was implemented. Schools fly flags corresponding to the air quality colors on a given day. Air Quality is a major concern in Maricopa County and has been identified by the Coalition as our major focus for the next year. We piloted the program in Roosevelt School District in the last month of school in the 2005/2006 school year in five schools and expanded to 21 in July 2006. Educational programs for staff, parents and children in Roosevelt District Schools have been developed and will be conducted in the spring of 2007. We plan to expand the program in spring of 2007.
 
Let Us Breathe Campaign – partner with Clean Air organizations and agencies as well as schools to raise awareness as to the issues regarding indoor and outdoor air quality on the respiratory health of people in Maricopa County.

Online Newsletters– Asthma information targeted at parents, teachers, school nurses and other professionals will be implemented in spring of 2007. Initial focus will be on air quality issues and its relationship to children’s respiratory health.

Community Activities
The Coalition participates in numerous community health fairs and other community activities to educate the public on prevention, management and treatment of Asthma. We also participate in conducting asthma screening at the ACT Health Fair which is a major health fair focused on health evaluation/screening for children attending head start.