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Resources
- Outdoor Air Quality Guidance for Schools and Child Care
- Asthma Home-Based Services Toolkit, Manual and Client Curriculum
- Athletes and Asthma: The Community Coach's Role
- Asthma Education Resources for American Indian Communities
- Asthma Home-Based Services
- RETA - Reducing Triggers in the Home Training
- Strategic Framework 2021-2030
Related Sites
Asthma Home-Based Services
On this page:
Toolkit and AHBS manual
Health impact
Demonstration projects
Get started
MDH model
Make a referral
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Asthma Program encourages local public health and other health-based agencies to incorporate asthma home-based services into their routine home visiting programs.
Home-based services are a unique opportunity for a health care professional to visit the asthma patient in their own home. Meeting with families at their home creates the opportunity to provide:
- Individualized patient education.
- Review asthma action plans.
- Assess patient’s questions in an environment in which they are comfortable.
It is important that asthma patients understand what triggers may cause their asthma to flare up and learn ways to reduce exposure or eliminate triggers as much as possible. What may trigger a person’s asthma is very specific to that individual. Some of the more challenging asthma triggers are inside the home. These include tobacco smoke, dust mites, mold, saliva and dander from furry and feathered pets and pests like cockroaches and mice.
Home-based services afford more time with the patient and give the health care professional an opportunity to assess the home for potential asthma triggers. Health care professionals can use the results of the environmental home assessment to understand trigger exposure and better tailor a plan to support daily patient self-management.
Toolkit and AHBS Manual
Asthma Home-Based Services Toolkit provides resources and educational tools to support local public health or other health-based organizations interested in developing asthma home-based service programs. Peer-to-peer mentoring is available by pairing experienced local public health staff with agencies that are interested in providing asthma home-based services in their community.
Health impact
Projects conducted by MDH have repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of home-based services that include both asthma self-management education and home environmental assessments for people with asthma. Our model has demonstrated:
- A positive return on investment (ROI) – the ROI ranged from $5.25 to $1.61 for every dollar spent.
- Improved asthma control.
- Fewer asthma symptoms.
- Reduced missed days from school and work.
- Reduced use of unscheduled clinic, emergency department, urgent care visits, and inpatient hospitalizations.
In our most recent project, the number of missed school days was reduced by an average of 2.42 days in the previous three-month period. This is equivalent to increasing school attendance by seven days over a nine-month school year. The number of work days missed was reduced by 0.48 days over three months.
Demonstration projects
Past MDH Demonstration Projects provide good examples to understand home visits, how they happen, and what the impact could look like.
Get started
A referral, potentially coming from the patient’s prescribing health care provider, is the first step in getting an asthma home visit scheduled for a client/patient with poorly controlled asthma.
Health care systems, clinics, and providers struggle with sufficient time to provide asthma education in the clinic setting and they do not have the opportunity to see what triggers may be affecting their patients asthma in the patient home. Home visits can provide asthma care that meets the medical and educational needs of the individual patient. Medical treatment, including daily medications, in addition to effective management of asthma environmental triggers in the home can reduce the number and severity of an individual’s asthma episodes.
Home services are provided by a trained:
- Public Health Nurse
- Certified Asthma Educator (AE-C)
- Respiratory Therapist
- Community Paramedic
- Community Pharmacist
Some programs may use a Community Health Worker to follow up with the initial recommendations, which support, and reinforce patient understanding and learning.
MDH model
This model presents one way of delivering asthma home-based services. Many other models can be adapted to different settings, including public health organizations, community health centers, clinics, hospitals and schools. This model’s approach is consistent with the National Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Asthma (EPR-3).
Assessing asthma control and provide asthma self-management education (ASME)
- Managing asthma successfully means regularly assessing how well controlled a patient’s asthma is, monitoring symptoms and risk factors, and the risk for developing symptoms,
- and taking medications according to an individualized asthma action plan.
- Providing individualized asthma self-management education is included during an initial home visit and with subsequent follow-up visits. The goal is to assess and increase the patient’s ability to understand and follow their personalized written asthma action plan and to take action according to the plan.
- An asthma action plan provides a list and guidance on what asthma medications the patient takes and when, what symptoms to watch for that indicate asthma is not being well controlled, and when to seek emergency medical care.
- The asthma educator also provides an overview of how asthma affects a person’s ability to breathe and gives them guidance on how to manage their asthma every day.
Environmental assessment of triggers in the home
- Assessment of the home environment – a walk-through (visual assessment) that includes the person with asthma or a family member (the focus is on the sleeping area).
- Review the results of the home assessment with the individual and family – asthma triggers will be identified and action steps recommended to reduce or eliminate asthma triggers found in the home.
- Additional visits by local public health staff are scheduled to reinforce asthma self-management education and to deliver/set up recommended environmental products.
- Refer out or provide additional community resources as needed to support the social needs of the family and patient.
- Access local environmental health and healthy homes staff with expertise in housing to support more complex building and asthma trigger issues.
Make a referral
The following Minnesota programs currently offer in-home services for asthma. Please see contact information to inquire about services provided and current eligibility.
Map information
Agencies offering asthma home-based services to counties they serve: Anoka, Brown, Dakota, Des Moines Valley Public Health, Hennepin County, Kandiyohi County Health and Human Services, City of Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Southwest Health and Human Services, St. Louis County Public Health, and Wright County.
Services include free asthma consults for children that reside in that county. Services include an in-home asthma visit by a public health nurse or asthma program health care team member.
Agency in startup phase of implementing their asthma home-visiting program: Carver County.
All other counties: are not offering Asthma Home-Based Services currently.