The Butte-Silver Bow County Health Department has received a state-funded grant through the Montana Asthma Control Program to participate in the Montana Asthma Project (MAP) Home Visiting Program. This new program will directly serve eligible families in Butte-Silver Bow County.
Current data shows that home visits are an integral part of improving asthma management. Over the course of one year, those who participated in the home visiting program had a decreased number of emergency department visits, fewer missed school days, reduced use of rescue medication, and fewer nights waking up with asthma symptoms.
Affecting approximately 1 in 10 children within Butte-Silver Bow, asthma is the most common chronic condition among children and one of the leading causes of school absenteeism. The MAP Home Visiting Program is designed to provide children with asthma and their families support for disease management through a series of home visits that incorporate education and care coordination. MAP focuses on children and their families experiencing the physical, emotional, and financial burdens that asthma may cause, giving them knowledge and confidence to take control of their condition and lead active, healthy lives.
A specially trained Public Health Nurse will provide six visits over the course of a year with the goals of improving asthma control and asthma-related quality of life, increasing knowledge of how to manage asthma symptoms including prescribed medication management, and completing a home environmental assessment to increase awareness of how to reduce or eliminate asthma triggers.
The program also provides families with supplies like bed covers and air filters to reduce asthma triggers in the home environment. Children with asthma can control their disease, and this program will supplement traditional asthma care in a physician’s office to make well-controlled asthma a reality.
In order to be eligible for the program, children aged 0 to 17 years of age with a diagnosis of asthma must be residents of Butte-Silver Bow Country and have had at least one emergency department, urgent care or hospitalization for asthma within the previous 12 months, or have scored less than 20 on the Asthma Control Test (ACT) within the previous 12 months (applicable to those age 4 and older).
To refer a child living in Butte-Silver Bow County to the MAP, call the Butte-Silver Bow County Health Department at 406-497-5023.