World No Tobacco Day aims to raise awareness about the dangers of using tobacco and focuses on providing essential support to tobacco users to quit.

This year’s theme is Commit To Quit. Quitting smoking has immediate and long-term benefits, reducing the risks for diseases caused by smoking and improving physical and mental health. If it occurs early enough, successfully quitting smoking can result in a difference of up to 10 years in life expectancy.

Offering support is especially important for people who have tried multiple times to quit without long-term success. Being able to offer your patients PBS subsidised pharmacotherapies combined with brief advice and support can address barriers to trying to quit.

Additional behavioural support is available through Quitline and locally in the Illawarra Shoalhaven with the Text2Quit Program. 

Text2Quit is a FREE text-based smoking cessation service, where regular texts are sent to the client to help them quit smoking. All messages align with current guidelines including the RACGP’s Supporting smoking cessation: A guide for health professionals which was recognised in last years international WHO World No Tobacco Day 2020 awards for their evidence-based recommendations to assist patients to quit smoking.

Information about Quitline, Text2Quit (ISLHD only), Quit for New Life and other cessation programs can be found via your local HealthPathways website.

 

HealthPathways, Illawarra Shoalhaven, Quality in general practice, Southern NSW, Vulnerable groups,