* Cessation Hompage
Promoting cessation| Novedades |
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Helping people quit using tobacco requires that you educate, and more importantly, offer support and encouragement. For certain individuals, it may take only a few supplemental materials and an occasional phone call; for others, however, you may have toprovide weekly intensive counseling. Remember though, if an individual has enrolled in a tobacco use cessation program, s/he does have the desire to quit, and s/he just needs to know how to accomplish his or her goals. Involve everyone around an individual in helping him or her to quit—doctors, nurses, friends, family, co-workers—the more people that can offer support, the better an individual’s chances of success. In addition, involving clinicians in the process (primary care physicians, nurses, business health staff, etc.) allows an individual to receive information from an authoritative figure in the field of health; individuals tend to see clinicians as more reliable and knowledgeable than the average individual. Remember that relapse is common because the body is deprived of its dependency and therefore constantly craves nicotine. Helping an individual to deal with these inevitable cravings is the key to successful cessation. Cost could be a barrier to reaching the widest possible population.Therefore, you might have to offer alternatives that are free, or that simply state the cost of the addiction relative to the initial outlay for the cessation program. Finally, the success of your program depends on how well you evaluate participants' tobacco use behavior. People will not enroll or refer others if the program success rate is low. A wide variety of options are available to help you assess your program’s success; figure out how rigorous you will need to be, and decide which assessment toolis right for your program.
Skill Areas:
A Ability to empower people so that they know that they can overcome smoking
B Ability to treat smokers, including those who relapse, with respect and compassion
C Ability to develop cessation options (including behavior modification) that are affordable and culturally appropriate for low-income individuals
D Ability to involve community people (including friends and family members) in supporting cessation and preventing relapse
E Ability to flexibly re-integrate individuals who relapse intocessation programs
F Ability to use pre- and post-tests to learn how long program participants refrain from smoking
