Asthma UK Northern Ireland Calls On Schools To Be Alert To Asthma

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 30 Mar 2010 - 0:00 PDT


Asthma UK Northern Ireland is today urging all schools in Northern Ireland to act now to keep children with asthma safe at school and is launching an emergency appeal for donations to fund life saving training and resources.

The charity is launching its Alert to Asthma campaign following the tragic death of Samuel Linton who died after an asthma attack at his school in Stockport. A recent inquest found that the school's negligence significantly contributed to his death which highlights a disturbing lack of awareness about a condition affecting over a million children across the UK including 36,000 children in Northern Ireland.

Asthma UK Northern Ireland is contacting every school and local education authority Education and Library Board in Northern Ireland urging them to organise regular asthma training for all staff and to ensure they have a policy to support children with asthma. The charity is also calling for the Northern Ireland Assembly to make it compulsory for schools to have a policy in place to support children with asthma and parents are encouraged to show their support by joining an online campaign to raise awareness.

An urgent call for funds is also being made to enable Asthma UK Northern Ireland to support schools, for example by running the hugely successful Alert to Asthma training for school staff. In the last six months alone, the asthma nurses who deliver the programme have trained over 400 teachers and other school staff and are aiming to deliver a total of 50 sessions during 2010, but further funds are needed to support this.

Asthma UK Northern Ireland provides a range of resources for teachers and school nurses to support early years to secondary school age pupils with asthma. Resources include a tool for school nurses to support them in delivering awareness sessions on asthma and a policy pack to enables school staff to set up a policy to ensure children with asthma are protected at school.

Key advice for teachers in Northern Ireland on how to be alert to asthma is:

Alert

Know which pupils in your class have asthma and if their asthma has been getting worse.

Check

Make sure you know where a pupil's reliever inhaler (usually blue) is kept and you are aware of the symptoms of an asthma attack - a tight feeling in the chest, breathing hard and fast, coughing or wheezing, being quieter than usual/unable to speak.

Treatment

If you believe a child is having an asthma attack they need to use their reliever inhaler (usually blue) immediately - preferably through a spacer. If there is no immediate improvement they need to continue to take one puff of their reliever inhaler every minute for five minutes or until symptoms improve. If no improvement in five minutes, call for an ambulance. The child should keep using their reliever inhaler every minute until help arrives.

Joan O'Hagan, National Director of Asthma Northern Ireland says: 'Schools should be safe environments and parents and carers should be able to feel secure leaving children with asthma in their care. It's vitally important that every school takes asthma seriously and has in place policies and regular training to support children with asthma to prevent avoidable deaths. We urge schools to take action now and the public to get behind our campaign by making a donation.'

Source
Asthma UK

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