The Story…

The Northern California Breathmobile is a 33 foot Winnebago RV ”asthma clinic on wheels” thats treats asthmatic children in six East Bay Area schools. Our Breathmobile is the first in Northern California. The Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement, Inc. (PJCCE) began offering programs for the West Oakland community in 1995. The first Breathmobile was launched in Southern California on November 16, 1995.  There are now nine Breathmobiles throughout Southern California serving nearly 200 elementary, middle, and high schools. The Breathmobile has also been replicated in four other cities including Chicago, Phoenix, Baltimore, and Mobile (Alabama).

The Northern California Breathmobile began operating in September of 2009, with staggering results. Anna Yates Elementary School in Emeryville was the first school visited on September 14, 2009. The occasion was marked by a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by City and County officials, representatives from State and Federal offices, as well as some of the Breathmobile’s partners:

Port of Oakland, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America, Regional Asthma Management Program, and the media.

PJCCE has five program areas, one of which is Health & Wellness. In 2001 the West Oakland Asthma Coalition was established by area organizations to provide school-based education, school staff training,  in-home asthma education, and environmental assessments. However, Dr.Burns, the Executive Director, and the staff, began to understand that a health care facility had to be brought TO the people, and that a system had to be established where regular, provider visits and asthma case management, were ALWAYS available to the children. Asthma is the leading cause for both school absenteeism and pediatric emergency room visits.The PJCCE, in association with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, and PJCCE’s West Oakland Asthma Coalition, implemented a new approach to pediatric asthma management…the Breathmobile.

Parents were relying on the emergency room, or episodic rescue, instead of standardized care. School absenteeism was keeping children out of the classroom and parents out of work. Every missed school day was money that was taken away from the school by the federal government. Asthma was affecting many facets of life. It was becoming a “community disease.” Something had to be done to shift away from episodic care to preventative care. An accessible, community-wide, asthma disease management system which is was in accordance with national health standards, had to be brought to the East Bay Area community.

Breathmobiles had been operating around the U.S.,  including Chicago, Baltimore,  University of Alabama, and Phoenix. They were all a response to the increasing amount of asthma sufferers. The amount of asthma sufferers in the US doubled between the years of 1980 and 1996. The largest percentage increase was among children under 5 years old. Since 1977 death due to asthma increased four fold. Since 1980, asthma rates have risen most dramatically among African-American children. Hispanics too have higher rates than Caucasians and are more likely to have fatal asthma attacks. In  California about 1.5 million Californian children (23.6%) or 1 in 6 children have asthma in the age group of 5–17 years old. In Alameda County, 1 in 4 children have asthma in this age group. Of all the cities in Alameda County, Oakland has the highest rate of Emergency Department (ED) visits, which is 40% higher than the County rate.

Our mission is to to reduce the effects of asthma among economically challenged families by creating a sustainable asthma management program. We bring the service to where children are- the schools. Our vision is to develop a fleet of Breathmobiles that maintain scheduled visits to Bay Area schools in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, and San Francisco County. Currently we serve six schools, and are currently in the process of signing contracts to serve more. In our first year of operation, we saw staggering results. Amongst the 96 children that we treated, we saw more than a 70% drop in emergency room visits and in school abstenteeism. As of March 2011 we have officially signed schools in West Contra Costa County and in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

2011 is poised to be a huge year for us. Our story, however, can be more successful with YOUR help. You can help us write this story by telling your friends, family, co-workers, all of your networks, about the BreatheEasy blog and by going to our other sites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter). We hope that this information will inspire you to donate to the 20/20 Campaign or any amount affordable to you. The Breathmobile can only survive WITH the community’s help and support. Let us make 2011′s story an amazing one…together.