An Evaluation of an Asthma Education Pilot Programme Targeting the Traveller and Roma Community

Background The prevalence of asthma has been found to be significantly higher among members of the Traveller and Roma community. To this end, a decision was made by the Asthma Society in partnership with Pavee Point... [ view full abstract ]

Background

The prevalence of asthma has been found to be significantly higher among members of the Traveller and Roma community. To this end, a decision was made by the Asthma Society in partnership with Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre to design and deliver a four day asthma education course to Community Health Workers who are members of the Traveller Community.

Aims

The aim of this presentation is to discuss a multi stakeholder evaluation of the asthma education programme and to comment on its cultural congruence and its suitability for expansion including sustainably.

Method

This evaluation used a qualitative descriptive design. A total of 24 Traveller Community Health Workers participated in 5 focus groups and 8 key stakeholders were individually interviewed. Data were transcribed and subjected to a thematic analysis. Ethical Approval was received from the authors institution.

Findings

There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the programme and the participants found it difficult to fault the programme or the teaching approaches. They praised the facilitators and acknowledged the cultural congruence of the programme. The participants’ were aware that there was a knowledge deficit among the Traveller Community in terms of the causes, prevention, and treatment of asthma and following the course, they felt confident in their ability to train other community care workers. However, they acknowledged that they may require support to do this, including refresher courses.

Conclusion and Implications

The Asthma Education Pilot Programme as developed is culturally responsive to the needs of the Traveller Community, and is suitable for wider implementation. The cascade approach or ‘Trainer the Trainer’ strategy has been to shown to work and is an economical approach to build capacity and outreach specialist asthma knowledge to community health workers who may in turn disseminate that to other workers and families affected by asthma in the Traveller Community.