The Asthma Society launched its Beating Breathlessness WhatsApp Patient Support Service on World Asthma Day 2020 (5 May) – this service allows patients with asthma or COPD to message a respiratory specialist nurse to get support, advice and information about their condition.
Save the Beating Breathlessness number on your phone - (086) 059 0132. Send a WhatsApp message to our nurse with your query or to start your asthma/COPD chat today.
What is Beating Breathlessness?
Our new Beating Breathlessness is a free WhatsApp support service for patients with asthma or COPD (or their carers) who need information or support to manage their condition. Users of this service can use it to WhatsApp message a respiratory nurse specialist about various aspects of their asthma or COPD management including:
- Setting up/revising your Asthma Action Plan / COPD Management Plan
- Your asthma and COPD medications
- Recognising your asthma/COPD symptoms
- Knowing what to do in an asthma attack / COPD exacerbation
- How hayfever might affect your asthma/COPD
- How coronavirus might affect your asthma/COPD
- Triggers that may affect your asthma/COPD
- People with asthma and COPD can also use this support service to learn how to manage their anxiety around their conditions. This particularly important during the current coronavirus pandemic.
Please note: Our Beating Breathlessness education and support service is NOT an emergency
service.
If your symptoms/breathing have become worse and you are not relieved by your reliever inhaler. PLEASE CALL THE EMERGENCY SERVICES NOW on 999 or 112. Call a family member or friend to assist you.
How do I use Beating Breathlessness?
To start your Beating Breathlessness chat, simply send a WhatsApp message to your Beating Breathlessness nurse on 086 059 0132.
This service is strictly for persons aged 18 yrs. and above.
How quickly will I hear back from the Beating Breathlessness nurse?
We are open from Monday to Friday 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. This nurse will get back to you as soon as possible. We aim to respond to your query within three working days – we are closed on weekends and bank holidays.
How much does it cost to use Beating Breathlessness?
Beating Breathlessness is a free service. There are no hidden costs for using the service. The service is funded by Sláintecare.
Who should use Beating Breathlessness?
Beating Breathlessness can be used by people with asthma and COPD along with their families and carers.
Sample Beating Breathlessness Questions:
- What is an Asthma Action Plan and how do I set one up?
- The coronavirus pandemic is causing me a lot of anxiety. Can you help me?
- My COPD is being triggered by my hayfever. What should I do?
- My child’s asthma symptoms get worse at night. What should I do?
- I think I might have COPD. How do I go about getting diagnosed?
GDPR /Privacy Statement:
The Asthma Society respects your right to privacy and complies with its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Personal information will not be requested, taken, or stored while using this WhatsApp Beating Breathlessness service.
Service users will be sent a link to provide feedback and to assist us in continually improving our Beating Breathlessness WhatsApp service delivery. This will be sent via text message (SMS). Completion of the survey is purely optional and is not required to avail of the service. A further request is also made to provide feedback through a follow up 90 day survey – This is once again to help us assess the long-term impact of the Beating Breathlessness service. The user will only be surveyed by SMS if the user chooses to do so. This does not impact the user’s ability to use the service at a future date. Survey results are strictly anonymised. Information gathered is stored on a secured database and will be deleted after a period of four months.
Absolutely no identifiable user information is required or used by the Asthma Society, to avail of this service.
This will be stored on a secured database and will be deleted after a period of four months. Consent to be surveyed can be removed by the user at any time – by making request via email to the Asthma Society and the email address will be correspondingly deleted from the Asthma Society’s secure database. This will not affect the user’s access to this service or any other services now or in the future.
The Asthma Society will delete all WhatsApp chats if the user does not respond to chat after seven days and the chat will be deemed closed.
The user cannot be identified by using this service.
The Beating Breathlessness programme is funded by Sláintecare.
