Emergency hospital admissions for children with asthma increase significantly in the month of September.
The September surge in children’s asthma hospital admissions occurs year after year in Ireland and in many other countries. Many doctors refer to this as the September Asthma Peak and believe the increase is due to changes in the weather, a less strict preventer medication routine over the summer and the increased exposure to viral infections that happens when children return to school.
To combat this rise the Asthma Society of Ireland runs an annual Back to School awareness campaign.
This year we have developed a Back to School Checklist to help parents of children with asthma to get their condition under control before they return to school.
The message from the Asthma Society of Ireland is simple: Makre sure your child's asthma is undercontrol well before they return to school so that they can stay well.
The Asthma Society also offers comprehensive FREE education sessions to schools to help parents and teachers who wish to learn more about managing asthma in children. The 1.5 hour session, which is facilitated by an asthma nurse specialist, covers the following:
- What is asthma
- How to recognise if a student has asthma
- Asthma triggers
- Asthma medications at school
- Inhaler technique
- Exercising with asthma
- What to do in an asthma attack
- Guidelines for developing a school asthma policy and an asthma record sheet for students
To further help and support children with asthma we run an Asthma Friendly Schools Programme. The award recognises the valuable role that school plays in supporting and empowering students with asthma and provides them with a comprehensive programme of supports to do so.
Over the past year we've been recieveing messages from parents, teachers and other school staff asking how they would get a reliver inhaler in their school incase of an asthma emergency. They found the whole inhaler procurment procees very confusing.
We've created a guide that explains how a teacher can be trained in reliever inhaler administration, how a school can register to be granted permission to do so, and how to get a reliever inhaler in the school.
This document explains how a teacher can be trained in reliever inhaler administration, how a school can register to be granted permission to do so, and how to get a reliever inhaler in the school.
