A bilingual children’s storybook co-designed by Brimbank’s Vietnamese community in collaboration with community health organisation, cohealth, aims to tackle the serious health problem of childhood asthma.
The book will be launched at St Albans library on Saturday, June 10, and the West Footscray library on Wednesday, June 14.
‘Minh’s Asthma Story’ which is written in English and Vietnamese, is aimed at children aged five to nine years old.
It tells the story of Minh’s family as they journey from asthma symptoms to diagnosis to asthma self-management.
Cohealth Health Promotion Coordinator from the Improving Childhood Asthma Management program at cohealth said, “asthma in young children is particularly severe in Melbourne’s inner west.”
“…We wanted to create a culturally-appropriate resource which helps parents and carers understand how they can self-manage their child’s asthma,” she said.
“As with all our programs and services, it was vital for the community to have ownership of this project, so we partnered with a Vietnamese-speaking parents’ group. Their insights have been invaluable.”
Brimbank, Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay residents suffer from high levels of air pollution, ranking highest in the state for emergency department presentations for asthma and wheeze in child and adolescent patients.
Brooklyn and Yarraville have been named as two of Victoria’s air pollution ‘hot spots’.
A St Albans mother was one of the parents who helped co-design Minh’s Asthma Story and has personal experience of having a child with asthma.
The storybook is part of the ICAM project – Improving Childhood Asthma Management, in the Inner West.
With funding from the Victorian Government ICAM includes several projects aimed at improving quality of life and health outcomes for children with asthma in the inner west.
It will also be available at Local Government and Primary School Libraries, as well as free hard copies by request.
Details: www.cohealth.org.au/icam
Jennifer Pittorino
