Kids being entertained by circus activities during the asthma community workshop. Photos: Healthy Cities Australia.
Illawarra families are learning to breathe easier through a community asthma awareness program aimed at reducing preventable hospitalisations and emergency department presentations, as cold and flu season hits its peak.
Healthy Cities Australia partnered with the national peak asthma body Asthma Australia to provide services to Wollongong families to improve outcomes for people with asthma.
Healthy Cities asthma program coordinator Alexander Brown said among the initiatives was Breathe Better Illawarra, which involved Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District specialist nurses providing expert guidance on childhood asthma care to parents.
Alexander said this year’s second workshop was held last week (17 July) at Koonawarra Public School, bringing together 35 parents and children to learn critical asthma management techniques.
He said the winter months could often see an increase in asthma incidents, making the timing important.
“Viral infection is one of the key triggers that lead to what they call a flare-up, which is what people used to call an asthma attack,” he said.
“A lot of people obviously get viral infections like flu, RSV and just your regular cold around this time, and they can all trigger people with asthma into a flare-up.
“So it is a good time of year.”
Asthma is one of our most chronic diseases in Australia, with 1005 emergency department presentations and 254 hospitalisations attributed to asthma in 2021-2022 in the Illawarra Shoalhaven alone.
However, Alexander said most of those hospitalisations were preventable.
Educating parents on asthma during the July session.
“It’s really about learning those skills of how to self-manage,” he said.
“That means using the correct medication, having the correct asthma action plan and making sure that’s up to date, and then understanding the correct way to actually use the devices.
“Research shows a lot of the time people with asthma aren’t using their devices correctly, so they’re not as effective, and that’s one of the reasons why people end up sicker than they need to be.”
Alexander said each interactive workshop was timed with the school holidays, when parents and children were more available, with the first workshop held in April and the next to be staged in the September school break.
He said sessions involved circus activities to keep children entertained, while parents received specialised medical advice and had opportunities to ask questions to nurses about managing their child’s condition.
Among the feedback from participants was: “I actually learnt so much about asthma I didn’t know before.”
Part of the information shared was also about the social and environmental factors that contribute to people with asthma ending up in hospital.
“We do some advocacy work around some of the issues that affect people with asthma, like domestic gas appliances, which are a risk factor,” Alexander said.
“Exposure to the effluent from gas in the home, so cooktops, is associated with increasing asthma symptoms.”
With asthma affecting about 11 per cent of Australians, the community-focused workshops aim to improve health literacy and provide practical support for families.
Details of the September Breathe Better Illawarra workshop are available on the Healthy Cities Australia website.
