Virtual Better Breathers Club Meetings
Overview
Organization: American Lung Association
Start Date: March 2020
End Date: Ongoing
Primary Goal: Goal 1: Empower people with COPD, their families, and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.
Secondary Goal(s):
- Goal 2: Improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of COPD by improving the quality of care delivered across the health care continuum.
Objective(s):
- Increase the effectiveness and variety of outreach communication campaigns and activities that utilize evidence-based approaches to raise awareness of COPD, particularly among those at high risk, and help people diagnosed with COPD manage the disease
- Expand opportunities to increase COPD awareness across the public-private spectrum
- Improve access to care for people with COPD, particularly for those in hard-to reach areas
Collaboration: We worked alone
Activity Type: Patient education
Activity Description
Better Breathers Club is the American Lung Association’s oldest ongoing health education program, starting in the 1970’s. The goal of these community-based support groups is to improve quality of life and functional status for people with chronic lung disease. Better Breathers Club is at its heart a COPD program. It was founded as such, and most of our Club members are people with COPD and their caregivers.Goal 1 of the COPD National Action Plan is to empower people with COPD, their families and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD. Better Breathers Club contributes to this goal at the local level, while feeding up to a widespread national response. At the beginning of 2020, there were over 500 Clubs in 49 states across the country. Even then we recognized the need to identify additional ways to better serve those patients and caregivers that could not access a traditional Better Breathers Club. We had been exploring options for offering virtual support groups to provide the same social connection as our face-to-face Better Breathers Club with a goal of serving rural and mobility-impaired individuals.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit right as we began to pilot test our virtual meeting project. With the immediate recommendation to switch to virtual meetings across the country, we have since refined resources that provide assistance to facilitators in hosting virtual meetings – including how-to videos and simple guides for both facilitators and members. In addition to local Club offerings, we also offer nationwide virtual support groups on a monthly basis rotating between lung disease management topics.
Audience
General Audience: Patients, Caregivers or family members, Health professionals, General Public
Focused Audience: n/a
Program Reach: National
Type of Area: Urban, Suburban, Rural
Setting: Online
Cost and Funding Sources
We couldn’t offer this program without the dedication and support of our community dissemination partners who sponsor the Clubs, and a fantastic network of trained volunteer facilitators. Local grants provide additional support at the Club level.Impact Analysis
The American Lung Association has had over 5,000 attendees register for virtual Club meetings since March at the national level and we are still collecting data on the number of virtual Club meetings and member attendance estimates. Meetings are recorded and available on demand on Lung.org, where our COPD pages enjoy over one million visits a year.Advice or Lessons Learned
The secret to the longevity and success of Better Breathers Clubs – in my opinion – is the combination of knowledge, skills and social support they provide. We regularly hear from facilitators how rewarding it is to make such a profound difference in the health and the lives of the members they serve.Related Links
Contact Information
American Lung Association
National Senior Director, Health Promotions, Lung Disease Programs
Tigard
Oregon