Teachers' Ignorance Is Putting Children With Asthma At Risk

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 05 May 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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A disturbing three quarters of teachers are not completely confident about what to do if a child in their class has a potentially life-threatening asthma attack¹, yet asthma is the most common long-term condition affecting children in the UK and on average there are two children with asthma in every classroom.

The impact this lack of confidence has on children with asthma can be clearly seen in a new report called Missing Out that Asthma UK is launching on World Asthma Day (5 May). The report is based on conversations² with children across the UK and paints a bleak picture of life at school for children and young people with asthma.

Half the children we spoke to said that their asthma meant that they had problems joining in with lessons and going on school trips with the rest of their class. Almost three quarters said they had problems joining in PE lessons and 40% said their asthma stopped them having fun. A frequent worry was that teachers simply didn't understand the condition and that as a result children were either placed in a 'protective bubble', with teachers banning them from certain activities, or conversely they were dismissed by ill-informed teachers as being 'melodramatic' or 'over-reacting'.

It is difficult to pinpoint the reasons behind teachers' lack of confidence in dealing with asthma in the classroom, but we believe that lack of direction from the Government on how teachers should support children with asthma, is an important factor. In addition there is no system in place to audit the effectiveness of school asthma policies or whether they are even being used and many schools must contend with a severe lack of school nurses available to help them implement the policies and train teachers on how to use them.

Until teachers are empowered to feel fully confident about dealing with asthma in the classroom, children with asthma are at risk of missing out on their childhood by being excluded from PE and school trips, being prevented from playing with their friends or in the very worst cases, being subjected to unnecessary and traumatising dashes to A&E.

Chantelle Down is fourteen years old and her mother Claire says: 'The teachers really don't know what to do if Chantelle is having an attack. One day she had a really severe attack, in the changing rooms during PE because the other girls were using aerosol sprays. Chantelle's PE teacher didn't have a clue what to do and left it to another pupil to take Chantelle outside in the fresh air to give her her inhaler.'

Asthma UK will be discussing the issues raised in the Missing Out report in a range of events around the UK for World Asthma Day, including at a Children's Asthma Summit on 5 May, hosted by Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority for local healthcare professionals, managers and local authority Directors of Children's services. As part of our call to action to help children with asthma, we will be asking the government to:

- Increase numbers of school nurses.

- Introduce clear guidelines for schools on their responsibilities for supporting children with asthma

- Develop and implement consistent standards for asthma. There is an eightfold difference in emergency hospital admissions for children between different PCTs across England. More needs to be done to tackle this huge variation and to ensure that standards are actively implemented and regularly monitored. Scotland has children's standards, Northern Ireland is currently consulting on children's standards and Wales has a limited number. We want England to follow these examples.

We're also asking schools to ensure that they have an asthma policy in place and that all school staff, including both teachers and support staff, are familiar with it and their responsibilities for implementing it. To support this Asthma UK has worked in partnership with other health charities to pilot a School Nurse Resource Pack which all school nurses should be encouraged to use to help teachers understand and develop their role in supporting children with asthma.

Asthma UK will shortly be introducing a new initiative whereby funding will be offered to targeted health service organisations for children's asthma specialist nurse posts for one year with the agreement that they pick up the funding of these posts on a permanent basis at the end of the one year. This initiative was piloted in Dudley Primary Care Trust in 2007 and following its success we will be funding two more posts in 2009 and hope to fund many more in the future.

Neil Churchill, Chief Executive at Asthma UK says 'The false assumptions that lead some teachers to ban children with asthma from taking part in PE and other school activities, demonstrates the same lack of knowledge that would make those teachers unable to help if a child in their classroom were to have an asthma attack.

'There is no need to wrap children up in cotton wool but it is every school's responsibility to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and resources to protect and support the children in their care. This will ensure that over million children with asthma in the UK do not "miss out" on their childhood.'

If you want to help raise money to support children with asthma you can support Asthma UK's first ever fundraising week 'Putting Asthma in the Limelight' which will run from the 2 - 10 May by donating online at http://www.asthma.org.uk/limelight.

Missing Out Report: http://www.vocus.com/images/pr/asthma_MissingOut-UK.pdf

Visual: http://www.vocus.com/images/pr/asthma_MissingOut-UK.jpg

¹From a representative sample of over 1,600 teachers across England in a survey conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research in February 2009 ²See Background on the Missing Out report below

Notes

1. Asthma UK is the charity dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the 5.4 million people in the UK whose lives are affected by asthma.

2. For up-to-date news on asthma, information and publications, visit the Asthma UK website http://www.asthma.org.uk.

3. Confidential advice about asthma is available by speaking to a nurse on the Asthma UK Adviceline, on 0800 121 62 44 (Monday - Friday, from 9.00am-5.00pm). Or email an asthma nurse at http://www.asthma.org.uk/adviceline

4. The production of Asthma UK's Missing Out report was supported by a grant from Napp Pharmaceuticals Limited.

All about asthma

- The UK has some of the highest rates of asthma in the world.

- There are around 91 emergency admissions a day for children with asthma in the UK

- 1 in 11 children in the UK has asthma - that's on average 2 children in every classroom.

- Every year, the equivalent of a classroom of children dies as a result of asthma

- 1 in 8 children with asthma symptoms have attacks so bad they cannot speak

- Nearly a quarter of children with asthma miss six or more days of school a year as a result of their condition.

Background on the Missing Out report

- In 2008 Asthma UK Scotland spoke to children and young people with asthma as part of a wider review of services for children and young people.

- The resulting report, In Their Own Words, painted a bleak picture and showed for the first time how children and young people with asthma were missing out or felt excluded from normal everyday activities because of their condition.

- Between February and March 2009, seven focus groups were held in England, Northern Ireland and Wales with children and young people aged between 5-18 years old.

- We also ran an online survey for children and young people with asthma and gathered information from children and young people who use our services.

- The culmination of these findings form the basis of the Missing Out report.

World Asthma Day activity UK-wide

- Westminster Reception, London (5 May). The All Party Parliamentary Group on Asthma and Asthma UK will host an evening reception to be attended by MPs, Peers, stakeholders and children and young people with asthma. A young person with asthma will speak at the event and a Minister has also been invited.

- Alan Johnson fact finding visit at the Royal Brompton Hospital (6 May). In preparation for his speech on health inequalities on 7 May at the Fabian Society, Secretary for Health Alan Johnson will be at the Royal Brompton Hospital (RBH) for an Asthma UK-hosted fact finding visit on 6 May. The Minister will speak to people with asthma and clinicians at RBH about the need for a clinical strategy for asthma and free prescriptions for people with long-term conditions.

- Children's Asthma Summit, Yorkshire and Humberside (5 May). An event hosted by Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority for local healthcare professionals, managers and local authority Directors of Children's services. Rosie Newbigging, Executive Director Nations, Regions and Services, Asthma UK will be one of the speakers.

- Children's Hospital Conference, Birmingham (5 May). A half day conference hosted by Birmingham Children's Hospital for secondary school PE teachers and school nurses.

- Youth Conference, Cardiff (5 May). This event, hosted by Asthma UK Cymru, will see children and young people with asthma from asthma hot spots in Wales visiting the Senedd to speak with their own Assembly Members and ministers about the issues facing them. They will also have the opportunity to question children's minister Jane Hutt about the asthma care the receive at school.

- Senedd turns lime, Cardiff (5 May). To show the Welsh Assembly Government's support for this issue, Jeff Cuthbert, Assembly Member for Caerphilly and Chair of the Healthy Living Group, will be sponsoring Asthma UK Cymru to light up the Senedd in lime green on the evening of World Asthma Day. Assembly Members will also be wearing lime green ribbons to show their support.

- Children's Commissioner Event, Belfast (5 May).Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People will be the key note speaker at this Asthma UK Northern Ireland event which will also feature involvement from local children with asthma.

- Cross Party Group, Edinburgh (5 May). Hosted by Asthma UK Scotland where children from the Asthma Committee at Auchinairn Primary in Bishopbriggs will put on a short performance. There will also be a talk from an asthma nurse at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Putting Asthma in the Limelight Fundraising week

- Asthma UK is launching our first ever fundraising week from 2 - 10 May called 'Putting Asthma in the Limelight', which will raise vital funds to support children with asthma, particularly those who miss out or feel excluded by their asthma.

- We're encouraging everyone to get involved by being sponsored to wear something lime, selling some lime coloured/flavoured food and drink or by putting themselves in the limelight by organising a fundraising event.

- Funds raised will go towards our services including our life-changing Kick Asthma holidays, our plans to fund asthma nurses working with children and our Alert to Asthma sessions which train early years carers and primary school teachers how to support children with asthma.

Get involved in Asthma UK's first ever fundraising week 'Putting Asthma in the Limelight' which will run from the 2 - 10 May, coinciding with World Asthma Day on Tuesday 5 May. You can help raise money to support children with asthma by being sponsored to wear something lime, selling lime flavoured food and drink or by putting yourself in the limelight by organising a fun-packed fundraising event. For more details or to order your fundraising pack visit http://www.asthma.org.uk/limelight

Source
Asthma UK

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