April 16, 2024

Asthma Cooperative Agreement Partner Profile – Texas

CDC is funding the health departments in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin to improve the reach, quality, effectiveness, and sustainability of asthma control services and to reduce asthma morbidity, mortality and disparities by implementing evidence-based strategies.

Overview

The Texas Asthma Program (TACP) has been part of CDC's National Asthma Control Program since 2000. They work alongside partners to improve the quality of asthma care, improve asthma management in schools, and foster policies to help reduce exposure to asthma triggers in outdoor, indoor, and workplace environments.

Grantee

Texas Department of State Health Services

Contact

Nimisha Bhakta

Telephone

512-776-7234

E-mail

Nimisha.Bhakta@dshs.texas.gov

Address

Texas Department of State Health Services
P.O. Box 149347, FCMB, MC 4501
Austin, Texas 78714-9347

Websites

TX DSHS

Data Profile

Asthma in Texas

Grantee Profile

ACAPP - Texas

Highlights

TACP funds the Dallas County Asthma Control Project, which is currently targeting school-age children in home, school, and clinical settings. Dallas County has implemented an asthma home visiting program, which reached 124 individuals in 318 home visits as of March 2022. They conduct trainings for community health workers (CHWs), with 25 CHWs trained on tobacco cessation and 58 CHWs trained on the Home Characteristics and Asthma Triggers Checklist, an assessment for home visitors created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), CDC, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Dallas County partners with the Parkland Health Asthma Texting Program, a free program that texts enrolled participants about how to care for children with asthma and provides reminders of asthma healthcare appointments. In spring 2022, Dallas County begun offering the American Lung Association’s (ALA) Open Airways for Schools asthma self-management education program in select county schools.

TACP supports the Harris County Asthma Control Project, which serves children and adults with asthma with their One Breath at a Time (OBT) asthma program in schools, community centers, and health systems. One Breath at a Time employs multiple asthma self-management curricula created by the ALA: Open Airways for Schools for pre-kindergarten to 5th grade students, Kickin’ Asthma for 6th to 12th grade students, and Breathe Well, Live Well for adults ages 18 and older. In May 2021, Harris County conducted two webinars for CHWs implementing OBT, educating 214 CHWs on tobacco cessation and 233 CHWs on the EPA/CDC/HUD Home Characteristics and Asthma Triggers Checklist. The OBT program enrolled 514 people during 2021–2022, with 374 people completing at least 60% of the sessions offered.

TACP funds the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District to serve children with asthma in San Antonio and surrounding areas through their SA Kids B.R.E.A.T.H.E. (Building Relationships, Effective Asthma Teaching in Home Environments) program (SAKB). The program targets children from lower-income families in the San Antonio area through referrals from healthcare providers, schools, and community outreach. In 2021, they increased recruitment to SAKB, discussed school bus idling reduction policies with 36 local school districts, and educated over 100 healthcare providers on the 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines.

TACP assisted with the Texas Medicaid Affinity Group, launched in May 2020, which focuses on asthma quality improvement initiatives among Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) in Nueces and Harris counties. This technical assistance project has increased asthma awareness among Texas Medicaid personnel and leadership. The seven participating MCOs have implemented their own asthma management interventions targeted to their patient populations. Since May 2020, this project hasreached72,624 children and 22,413 adults in Harris County, and it has affected 20,277 children and 3,139 adults in Nueces County. TACP will use data tracked in this project, including emergency department visits, hospitalizations, specialist visits, and asthma medication usage, to analyze the effectiveness of the interventions.