Michigan Asthma Interventions

The Asthma Initiative of Michigan (AIM), with the support of the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, has developed and promoted many interventions, or projects, to help those with asthma. Interested in learning more about these interventions? Contact us at [email protected] You may also want to view previous event recordings and meeting marterials.

School Interventions

  • EduPaths: Supporting Students with Asthma
    Supporting Students with Asthma is an EduPaths (professional development portal for Michigan educators) module where school staff can learn how to support their students with asthma and earn .25 State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECH). This course also connects educators with the American Lung Association Asthma Basics Program, which teaches participants to recognize and manage triggers, understand the value of an asthma action plan, and how to recognize and respond to a breathing emergency (earn 1-hour SCECH)
  • Healthy School Action Tool (HSAT)
    The HSAT is an online assessment to help your school determine ways to create a healthier school environment. If you represent a Michigan school and want to determine what you can do to improve your school’s health, visit the HSAT website and find out how to complete the assessment.
  • Michigan School Inhaler Law
    Legislation allowing Michigan public and nonpublic school children, under certain conditions, to carry and self administer prescribed asthma and allergy medications on school grounds and during school sponsored activities. This helps ensure that students with asthma and allergies have immediate access to life-saving medications.
  • Visit our schools page for more information about school interventions.

Environmental Interventions

Reducing Diesel Emissions from School Buses

If you’re interested in participating in efforts to reduce diesel emissions from school buses in Michigan contact John Dowling at [email protected].

Reducing children’s exposure to diesel exhaust from school buses includes efforts to:

  • work toward encouraging policies and practices to eliminate unnecessary public school bus idling (EPA’s Idle-Free Schools Toolkit)
  • upgrade (“retrofit”) buses that will remain in the fleet with better emission-control technologies and/or fueling them with cleaner fuels
  • replace the oldest buses in the fleet with new, less-polluting buses.

Outdoor Air Quality programs

  • Air Quality Index–an easy way to understand how clean the outside air is. It is a simple tool that provides a color-coded “picture” of current air pollution levels and health effects, and allows people to take action to protect their health when air pollution levels are higher than normal.
  • EnviroFlash–a FREE service that provides advanced, personalized notice about unhealthy air quality days and urgent local air pollution situations via automated e-mail and text messages, and information on actions you can take to reduce pollution and protect health.

Clinical Interventions

  • Michigan Asthma Resource Kit (MARK)
    The MARK was developed to help health care professionals and their office staff use nationally established guidelines for asthma, and includes easy-to-understand handouts for patients and their caregivers.
  • FLARE
    The FLARE plan is a comprehensive and concise tool to help emergency department patients receive discharge instructions based on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) asthma guidelines for asthma management.
  • Managing Asthma Through Case-management in Homes (MATCH)
    Serving adults and children, the MATCH model of home-based asthma case management includes physician care and school/work visits, carried out by certified asthma educators, and social work involvement. Programs are reimbursed for services by some health plans. Outcomes from a pilot study show significant improvements in numbers of ED visits and hospitalizations. This model of care is available in Genesee, Ingham, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties.
  • Asthma Guideline Implementation Steps & Tools (GIST)
    Asthma GIST is a program with tools that help make it easier for primary care clinicians to use the NHLBI asthma guidelines in their everyday care of patients with asthma.
  • Spacer/Valved Holding Chamber (VHC) Access
    A spacer or VHC attaches to the inhaler to improve medication delivery into the lungs. AIM is working to improve access to these life-saving devices.
  • Asthma Action Plans
    A written asthma action plan can help anyone who has asthma control it daily and when symptoms get worse. AIM has created electronic asthma action plans with age-appropriate dosing in drop down menus for guidelines-based asthma, GERD and allergy medications.

Self-Management Support

There are many options for asthma self-management education. To learn about asthma education programs, visit the National Asthma Self-Management Education Resource page.