Almost 12 percent of Orange County residents reported having asthma in 2011. Only six percent of that number reported earning more than $50,000 per year.

That’s why the Orange County Health Department created Healthy Homes. It’s an asthma intervention program that lets the health department assess the air and safety of a given home environment.

“What Healthy Homes looks like is an environmental specialist and a nurse coming to a family’s home both to do a medication review with them and to do some in-home assessments to empower the family to do things that they can—that are within their control to prevent some of the asthma exacerbations,” said Coby Jansen Austin. She’s the Director of Programs and Policy for the Family Success Alliance, and the Board of Health for the Orange County Health Department.

She said the purpose of the program is to reduce emergency room visits and improve asthma symptoms in Orange County homes. Healthy Homes is a pilot program, and won the GlaxoSmithKline “Child Health Recognition Award” in September. The award comes with $5,000 to buy resources needed for it to continue working.

“With it being a pilot program, we started small,” she said. “And I’m hopeful that now we’ll be able to have a much larger reach.”

Austin said much of what Healthy Homes does is provide homes with affordable methods to get health hazards out. They also often provide residents with mattress and pillow covers, eco-friendly cleaning kits and smoking cessation materials.

They also work with community partners such as the UNC Pediatric Pulmonary Clinic to give nurses asthma safety trainings at schools.

“We try and provide a comprehensive service for the families,” Austin said. “And also think about the ways that we can support our community in being better able to support those families.”

Austin said, overall the best part about the program, and the reward was that it came from different parts of the community working together.

“We just live in a community that has such great resources that there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to support these families,” she said. “And you know, all of the partners in the community bring something unique to this, either in terms of data or perspective or skills.”

Specialists from Healthy Homes have visited over 20 family residences so far. They are currently conducting research afterwards with follow-up calls after one, three and six months to see what asthma symptoms remain and whether there have been any emergency department visits after the review.

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