Helping kids with asthma breathe easy

Pictured: (L-R) Practice nurses Pawanpreet Kaur and Li Yan with practice manager Ayesha Mofiz and Dr Mohammad Rahman at RediCare Medical Centre.

A subsequent needs analysis by the Victorian Department of Health revealed that when seeking diagnosis or support to manage a child’s asthma, families and carers encounter a range of challenges and barriers when accessing and navigating the asthma care system.

As a result, the Victorian Government launched the Improving Childhood Asthma Management (ICAM) program to address increased rates of asthma-related emergency department presentations from children living in the catchment. The ICAM program is made up of six projects aimed to improve the local childhood asthma management system.

NWMPHN and Safer Care Victoria (SCV) collaborated on two of the six projects, an integrated care pathways project and a Community of Practice (CoP). 

Communities of practice – several of which have been facilitated by NWMPHN across a range of health issues – provide opportunities for clinicians to learn and share experiences, improving knowledge and confidence. 

The ICAM CoP was co-facilitated by local GP Dr Kirsty Tamis and Royal Children’s Hospital paediatrician Dr Katherine Chen. It included monthly education sessions with case studies where working practices, clinical guidelines, resources, and personal experiences of asthma care were discussed. 

Eight sessions ran from October 2022 to June 2023, with 263 people attending at least one, and 43 attending 2 or more. More than three-quarters said they would change something in their practice because of something they learned.

Another part of NWMPHN’s ICAM response was the Integrated Pathways Project. This involved workshops about asthma treatment and management between hospitals, community health organisations, peak asthma bodies Asthma Australia and the National Asthma Council, and general practices. 

Two general practices located in Melbourne’s inner west participated. In collaboration with the above stakeholders, they tested ideas for enhancing asthma follow-up and care for children. This resulted in 2 new quality improvement activity templates aimed at boosting 6-monthly reviews and asthma action plans.

One of the participants was Ayesha Mofiz, practice manager at RediCare Medical Centre in Caroline Springs.

“Coming into the program, our main goal was to prevent our young patients from presenting at the hospital emergency department with asthma concerns,” she said. 

“Throughout the program, we have been able to use Pen CS to filter young patients with asthma and work through each patient to ensure they are treated well in our practice – before their problems escalate to the point where they need to be rushed to the emergency department. 

“We have been very happy to have been involved in ICAM. Prior to participating in this program, we felt we had little knowledge about what resources are available to patients and providers. Through this program, our team has been equipped with up-to-date resources, particularly patient-facing information.” 

The collaboration of hospitals, community health, peak bodies and primary care led to the success of the ICAM project, and now a new series of CoP sessions is running through 2023-24. 

NWMPHN has also developed comprehensive resources to support health care providers and patients and carers in Melbourne’s Inner west to manage asthma. More information is available on our website.

Keep up to date with the latest news and publications, funding opportunities, careers and upcoming events at NWMPHN.