A.I.R. Harlem

A.I.R. Harlem, which stands for asthma intervention and relief, was created to help asthmatic kids stay healthy, in school, and out of the hospital. A.I.R. Harlem is a community-based intervention designed to help families who have children with asthma through a comprehensive approach that includes care coordination, home visits, and monitoring of the home environment. A.I.R. Harlem uses a team approach to deliver educational, environmental, social, legal, and medical services to families living in Harlem. A.I.R. Harlem seeks to empower families so that they are able to control the disease themselves by employing disease management strategies that are known to be successful, and teaches those strategies to the families in the program. A.I.R. Harlem staff work closely with the families to identify conditions in the home environment that may aggravate asthma symptoms. The team customizes the educational and environmental strategies for each family and shares and teaches the strategies to the family members. A.I.R. Harlem provides a broad array of support services and materials for each family to help eliminate asthma triggers.

To improve the quality of life and academic achievement of asthmatic children, helping families break the revolving cycle of poverty that is worsened by chronic disease.

A reduction in ER visits by 64%, a reduction in overnight hospitalization by 85% and a reduction in school absences by 69%.

In a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Asthma Initiative was found to have been successful in dramatically reducing childhood asthma-related morbidity. For example, the number of emergency room visits decreased from 35% to 8%; the number of overnight hospital stays for asthma decreased from 8% to 0%; and the number of children who missed school because of asthma decreased from 23% to 8%. There were also significant increases in the use of effective asthma management strategies including the use of a spacer device (41% to 96%), adherence to preventative medication on a daily basis (32% to 52%), and possession of a peak flow meter (22% to 92%).

Recent results have seen a reduction in ER visits by 64%, a reduction in overnight hospitalization by 85% and a reduction in eduction in school absences by 69%.