Wednesday, April 2, 2025
4/2/2025
Illinois Asthma EXHALE Strategies - The purpose of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Asthma Program’s (Program) proposal is to improve the reach, quality, effectiveness, and sustainability of asthma control services and to reduce asthma-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, mortality, and health disparities through a coordinated manner, in school, home, health care, and community settings. Focus populations include children, people experiencing low-income, and the non-white population. The proposed project activities aim to improve organizational infrastructure to advance health equity, as well as prioritize environmental justice and social determinants of health in planning, implementation, evaluation, and expansion of the EXHALE Technical Package. IDPH is proposing the below strategies that complement EXHALE. Planned strategies and activities will be driven by new and established collaborations and include: • Access to Care Collaborative (ACC): The ACC will strengthen linkages and coordination of care through a health system and community health worker (CHW) collaboration, designed to address social determinants of health (SDOH) and remove barriers to accessing care. Utilizing asthma diagnosis codes and SDOH screening in the emergency department, CHWs will provide asthma self-management education (AS-ME) and other wrap-around services, such as referrals to the Illinois Tobacco Quitline (ITQL), referrals to primary care, insurance enrollment, and assistance with other needs, such as food, housing, and transportation. • Coordinated Care Asthma Project (CCAP): The CCAP is a coordinated effort among partners in multiple sectors to identify asthma-related needs among elementary students and their caregivers, including school staff, and to deliver coordinated services, of increasing intensity, to fill identified gaps. Services include an environmental assessment of participating schools, AS-ME and caregiver education, referrals to asthma mobile vans, and referrals to home visiting. • Healthier Homes Initiative: The Healthier Homes Initiative centers around healthy homes and energy efficiency and weatherization through a health equity lens. Partners will enroll those with poorly controlled asthma through an application process, and based on need, provide a variety of services, including insulation, air sealing, and health and safety remediation services to improve indoor air quality within the home. • Home Visiting Collaborative (HVC): The HVC is comprised of three asthma home visiting programs located in priority areas in the state. Programs will provide multi-component, intensive home visits that are tailored to client needs. Services include AS-ME, referrals to the ITQL, linkages to community support services, and assistance with asthma trigger remediation. The HVC will also serve as a learning community where successes, challenges, and quality improvement initiatives are discussed. • Pharmacy Asthma Education and Spacer Coverage: The Program will collaborate with key partners to advocate for reimbursement for AS-ME in pharmacy settings and improve access to pharmacy-prescribed spacers. IDPH seeks to meet all short, intermediate, and long-term outcomes identified in the Notice of Funding Opportunity: CDC-RFA-EH-24-0016, will collect required performance measure data, and will implement process and outcome evaluations.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).