Date: September 11, 2003 Group Members: John Smith, Jane Doe, and Joe Shmoe

Your problem (phrase):

Asthma in the Bronx.

State one of the major existing policies that attempts to deal with the social problem:

Asthma Education Program
The Office of School Health Programs has designed the Asthma Education Program to advance and complement current efforts in asthma education in New York City. One of the components is curriculum development to complement the current efforts of the EACH Child Asthma Program, which educates pre-school staff and families of pre-school children with asthma. Another component is curriculum development and training for public elementary school administrators, teachers and interdisciplinary school staff to advance school-wide asthma awareness in the New York City public elementary schools. http://www.nyam.org/divisions/schoolhealth/programs.shtml

What are the advantages of this policy (consider effectiveness, costs, enforcement, public acceptance):

Among the advantages of the Asthma Education Program in helping solve the problem of asthma in the Bronx are;

• increase public and patient awareness of asthma and preventive measures to minimize symptoms

What are the disadvantages of this policy (consider the effectiveness, costs, enforcement, public acceptance):

A disadvantage to this policy is that it only reaches one segment of the community through the public school system, specifically elementary schools. It is not addressing staff, administrators and students at the middle school or high school level, nor does it include any type of policy on improving the living conditions in the Bronx to prevent asthma.

Based on your evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages, should the current policy be totally replaced, strengthened, or improved? What advantages, if any, from the current policy should be retained? What disadvantages, if any, should be eliminated?:

The Asthma Education Program can be part of an effective overall strategy in helping reduce the problem of asthma in the Bronx. However, in order to maximize the effects of such an educational policy it should be applied at the middle-school and high-school levels in order to educate the maximum amount of administrators, staff, students and parents.