WHAT IS AN ASTHMA FRIENDLY FOOTBALL CLUB
For a youth football club to be considered to be an ‘Asthma Friendly Football Club’, they must have an active asthma policy in place. This could be a stand-alone asthma policy, or it could be a medical conditions policy which includes asthma as one of its components. The club should be able to provide evidence that they have the following minimum set of standards in place:
1. Raising Awareness
All club coaches must be in date for First Aid training. They should have also had an awareness session on the seriousness of asthma in childhood (they must have also studied the short training film on Asthma Friendly Football Clubs). They need to understand how best to support a child with asthma in the context of the sporting environment and to know what to do in an emergency. To promote this, the club needs to nominate an asthma champion (preferably a member of the club committee) who needs to ensure that the club and its coaches are all following the best practice described in this document.
2. Register and Asthma Cards
The club must maintain a centralised register of children with asthma. This should be updated from the club’s registration forms each season. (To achieve this, the annual registration form must include a question about whether the child has a diagnosis of asthma and, if so, what medications they use). All children who are on this centralised register need to have a medical action plan completed by their parents, which should then be held by the year group coach as part of the first aid kit provision for that squad. (Ideally, a second {photo-copy} of this plan should be kept along with the central asthma register).
3. Access to Inhalers
All children with asthma should be encouraged to routinely carry and administer their own inhalers as and when required. Coaching staff should routinely remind those children that need to take prophylactic doses of reliever medication before sport to do so as part of the standardised warm-up routine.
Children whose parents advise the club that the child is not yet able (or old enough) to self manage their own reliever inhaler, must know exactly where their reliever inhaler is stored and how to access it and, where appropriate, how to get help in using it.
During matches and training sessions, children’s inhalers should be stored in a secure but not locked box in close proximity to the field of play. This box should be appropriately labelled so all are aware of what its role is. (Inhalers should not be kept in the team First Aid Kit).
4. Posters
The club should display posters detailing the action for coaches / first aiders to take in an asthma attack. These need to be in prominent locations within the clubhouse and / or changing room complex.
5. Assessment of Triggers
Coaches should be aware of the common triggers for asthma. By knowing the children who have asthma within their squad, the coach will be better able to make appropriate judgements about the influence of triggers (and thereby act according to the perceived risk for individual children within their group).
6. Inclusion
The club should ensure that all club activities are accessible to children with asthma.
In year groups where rolling substitutions are permitted, any child that needs to leave the field of play because of asthma symptoms should be re-introduced into the game as soon as their symptoms have settled, providing that they feel well enough to do so and are confident to continue.
No child should ever be left on their own (or sent away from the field of play on their own) if they have needed to use an inhaller.
A word version of this can be obtained by e-mail - Please contact
asthmafriendlyfc@gmail.com
