More Choices

Asthma Control Program

Promote

Promote data and resource sharing, communication, and evaluation of comprehensive asthma control services.

• Work with key stakeholders to enhance statewide asthma surveillance systems and expand comprehensive asthma control services.
• Share newest asthma data through presentations, publications, face-to-face community engagement, the internet and other media platforms.
• Evaluate program and partner activities for continuous improvement.

Develop

Develop and strengthen Health Services Strategies to improve access to comprehensive asthma control services.

• Provide asthma self-management education services to children and their families at clinics.
• Engage Spanish-speaking parents of children with asthma to learn about their barriers in accessing asthma care.
• Work with the New Mexico Council on Asthma (NMCOA) to inform stakeholders about guidelines-based care and evidence-based policies for schools.

Support

Support Health Systems Strategies statewide to improve asthma care and coverage of comprehensive asthma services.

• Partner with university programs to develop evidence-based quality improvement interventions to help guide and support health care providers and staff at their health care practices.
• Partner with non-profits and state programs in developing effective, culturally responsive training programs for CHWs as they work with asthma patients in their homes.
• Partner with School-Based Health Center (SBHC) managers to develop a school-based asthma care model centered on the National Asthma Guidelines’ best practices to be used at SBHCs to improve care coordination for children with asthma.
• Partner with health care systems and service providers to improve coordination of care and provide payer coverage for comprehensive asthma control services.

---

Resources for Individuals and Families with Asthma

What is Asthma?

Asthma is:

• A chronic disease that causes swelling in the airways in the lungs.

• The airways carry air in and out of the lungs.

• When people have asthma, their airways are inflamed and sensitive, which causes them to swell and become clogged with mucus.

• When the airways are inflamed, the muscles that are wrapped around them squeeze or spasm. This is called bronchospasm. Bronchospasm makes the airways tighten, which causes asthma symptoms like coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness.

• There is no cure for asthma and even though symptoms can come and go, once one has developed asthma, one will always have asthma.

• Asthma can be controlled by taking the right medications and implementing environmental trigger avoidance strategies.

Asthma Medications

• Two types: Controller (maintenance) and Reliever (rescue)

• Controller medications are taken every day, even when there are no symptoms. They reduce inflammation and overproduction of mucus in the airways. They prevent asthma symptoms over time. Most controller medications take about 6 weeks to start working well.

• Reliever medications work quickly (in 5-15 minutes) and are only used as needed. They relax the muscles around the airways and temporarily relieve asthma symptoms.

• The most common way to take both controller and reliever medications is through a device called an inhaler. There are several types of inhalers, but a metered dose inhaler (MDI) should always be used with a valved-holding to ensure higher medication delivery to the lungs.

English

• Downloadable Asthma Medication Chart: Controller Versus Reliever
• What Are the Different Types of Asthma Medications?
• Why Are Valved-Holding Chambers Important?
• Video: How to Use your Asthma Inhaler

Español

• Video de Como Usar Su Inhalador Para el Asma

Environmental Triggers

Several environmental factors can be asthma attack triggers. Exposure to these triggers can increase inflammation inside the airways and cause bronchospasm. This can lead to asthma attacks. Staying away from the things that make your asthma worse is a large part of managing asthma and reducing symptoms. See the links below for more information on asthma triggers and ways to avoid them.

English

• Asthma and the Environment
• Healthy Homes for Families with Asthma
• Asthma Triggers
• What’s the Air Quality Where I live?
• Environmental Public Health Tracking - Asthma Data
• Environmental Public Health Tracking - Fire and Smoke

Español

• Desencadenantes del Asma

---

Healthy Homes for Families with Asthma

This Healthy Homes for Families with Asthma Video was created to be used by Community Health Workers/Community Health Representatives (CHW/CHR) as they work with asthma patients and families to more effectively control asthma symptoms and reduce environmental asthma triggers in the home. It addresses the Seven Principles of Healthy Homes from the National Center for Healthy Housing and discusses asthma action plans and medication devices to better control asthma.

---

Asthma in Hispanic Children

The Asthma Control Program partnered with Nuestra Salud to implement a series of community meetings to increase understanding about asthma care and control among Spanish speaking Hispanic families who have children with asthma, using the photovoice method.

---

External Resources

Centers for Disease Control

• Adolescent and School Health Program
• Asthma
• Asthma Speaker's Kit
• Basic Facts on Asthma
• The 6|18 Initiative: Evidence-Based Approaches

Environmental Protection Agency

• AirNow Kid's Air
• Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools

National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute

• Exploring Asthma
• Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma (EPR-3)
• 2020 Updates to EPR-3 Guidelines (EPR-4)
• National Asthma Control Initiative
• National Asthma Education and Prevention Program
• Physician Asthma Care Education

New Mexico Environmental Public Health Tracking

• 5-3-1 Method During Fire and Smoky Day
• Asthma Information and Data
• Indoor Air Quality
• Outdoor Air Quality
• Seasonal Allergies

University of New Mexico

• Adult Asthma Clinic
• Pediatric Pulmonology

Associations

• Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics
• American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology
• American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Children
• American Lung Association
• American Thoracic Society Chapters
• Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America

Asthma Control Program

Resources

The 6|18 Initiative: Evidence-Based Approaches The 6|18 Initiative: Evidence-Based Approaches The 6|18 Initiative: Evidence-Based Approaches

Video de Como Usar Su Inhalador Para el Asma Video de Como Usar Su Inhalador Para el Asma Video de Como Usar Su Inhalador Para el Asma

Video: How to Use your Asthma Inhaler Video: How to Use your Asthma Inhaler Video: How to Use your Asthma Inhaler

What Are the Different Types of Asthma Medications? What Are the Different Types of Asthma Medications? What Are the Different Types of Asthma Medications?

What’s the Air Quality Where I live? What’s the Air Quality Where I live? EPA Air Quality Data

Why Are Valved-Holding Chambers Important? Why Are Valved-Holding Chambers Important? Why Are Valved-Holding Chambers Important?