Free In-Home Asthma Help Is Now Available For Families In Wisconsin

May is a generally beautiful month in Wisconsin. The snow is gone, the windows are open, and the air smells like everything coming back to life.

Unfortunately, for adults and children living with asthma in Wisconsin, the warmer weather also brings pollen, and pollen brings trouble for sensitive airways.

May is Asthma Awareness Month, and in Wisconsin, approximately 550 children are hospitalized each year for asthma-related issues, and 4,800 end up in emergency departments.

All told, approximately 582,000 adults and children are living with asthma in Wisconsin. It is a highly prevalent condition statewide, affecting about 8.4% of all children and representing the most common chronic pediatric disease in the region.

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Free Help Is For Families In 4 Wisconsin Counties

The Wisconsin DHS is offering free in-home asthma management services through the Asthma-Safe Homes Program for Medicaid-eligible children and pregnant individuals with uncontrolled asthma in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and Rock counties.

Services include home visits for self-management education, assessments to identify triggers, supplies to reduce those triggers, and, if eligible, home repairs addressing mold, air quality, and allergens.

More than 700 Wisconsinites across over 100 homes have received repair and remediation services through the program in the past three years.

Tips to Help Keep Asthma Under Control This Spring

The Wisconsin DHS offers the following recommendations for families managing asthma right now:

• Make sure children take their medicine as prescribed every day.
• Create an asthma action plan and share it with any adult in a child's life who may need to know the steps, teachers, babysitters, and coaches included.
• Check local air quality and pollen levels at the DHS Climate and Health webpage.
• Have children stay indoors when air quality levels or pollen counts are high.
• Use air conditioning instead of opening windows when pollen counts are elevated.
• If a child has played outside, have them shower off before getting into bed.
• Vacuum kids' rooms and wash bedding, clothes, and stuffed animals weekly.

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More resources are available at the American Lung Association's Asthma Awareness Month page.