Asthma Prevention

CCHD has received a two year, $35,000 regional asthma prevention grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CCHD will act as the fiduciary for the Regional Asthma Coalition which consists of 35 towns in the greater Hartford area. According to the CT State Department of Public Health, in the 2005-2006 school year there were 5,832 asthmatics in the 35 towns.

The Coalition will contract with the American Lung Association of Connecticut to provide training of the Open Airways for Schools to 50 elementary school nurses. The goal of the program is to reduce the number of hospitalizations, emergency room visits and days of school missed due to asthma and a better day-today control of asthma among children who have enrolled in the program. Open Airways for Schools consists of a series of six forty minute sessions for children with asthma in grades 3, 4 and 5.