As a pediatrician, Choose To Love, Inc. Founder and CEO Dean M. Cannon, MD spent the majority of his clinical career caring for children who lived in low-income, marginalized communities that often lacked adequate resources to promote the health and wellness of its residents. He witnessed firsthand the effects that poor environmental and social factors can have on a child’s long-term health. Despite having been properly diagnosed and reportedly compliant with the prescribed treatment regimen, many of my patients with asthma, and other chronic medical conditions, would experience repeated acute office and emergency room visits for treatment of their uncontrolled symptoms, only to return within weeks, and sometimes even days with a persistence or return of their symptoms. When too ill to be managed in an outpatient setting, some would even require hospitalization. After a temporary state of perceived wellness, without a change in their environmental or social conditions, the cycle would start all over again.

As one can imagine, this perpetual state of recurrent ‘unwellness’ has a ripple effect in the life of a child with a chronic medical condition such as asthma. For a child, it could result in excessive missed school days, limited participation in sports and other enjoyable activities, and in some cases, can even lead to other chronic health conditions, such as depression. Having to take a child to frequent doctors’ appointments could result in a parent missing excessive time from work, provided they don’t lose their jobs as a result repeated absence. In the course of providing constant care for a sick child, parents often experience higher levels of stress and anxiety, while others may unknowingly neglect their own health. This untenable cycle can have a profound and lasting negative impact on the quality of life of the affected child and their entire family.