COEC Supports Local Partners through Asthma Initiatives

Asthma is a chronic lung disease that impacts 1 out of 10 North Carolina residents –particularly vulnerable populations, including African American and Native American communities and low-income households (North Carolina State Health Statistics). Many health professionals in local and state health agencies are working to understand and identify environmental exposures that exacerbate asthma and to inform their patients in these communities about environmental exposures.

Much of the work that the CEHS Community Outreach and Engagement Core (COEC) does to bring environmental health science information to public audiences entails partnering with health departments and other public health organizations across the state to enable trainings for nurses, social workers, and community health workers. In the past year, COEC educators Neasha Graves and Megan Hoert Hughes have trained more than 300 local public health professionals on the connection between asthma and air quality and these professionals use information from these interactive trainings to educate families during clinical and home visits, sharing information about hazards that exacerbate asthma and advice for minimizing environmental exposures. This collaborative approach enables the COEC to respond to community needs and to broaden its reach through networks of local health professionals.

One such example is the COEC’s collaboration with the Richmond County Health Department, which recently coordinated an interagency approach to providing asthma management services for pediatric patients.  To support this effort, COEC staff provided a 3-hour Environmental Asthma Trigger training, an intensive 6-hour Healthy Homes for Community Health Workers training that is approved by the National Center for Healthy Homes Training Center, and technical support and guidance to program staff.  Holly Haire, Environmental Health Supervisor in Richmond County and coordinator of the local asthma initiative, believes that this partnership has been instrumental to increasing environmental health literacy in the county: “We’ve received incredible support from the COEC. As a result of the training and resources, our staff has more confidence in sharing solutions for reducing asthma triggers with families of children and youth.”