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Smoking cessation services and disadvantaged smokers
Ann McNeill, Professor of Health Policy and Promotion, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, UK
Abstract
When the NHS Stop Smoking Services were originally set up in 1999 they were envisaged to focus on smokers from routine and manual groups, but little guidance was provided on how best to do this, specific targets were not set to encourage services to achieve this aim and progress was not monitored formally. The rationale and appropriateness of services focusing on routine and manual smokers will then be outlined, and the extent to which this should be a continuing focus against other priorities appraised.
Efforts made to support disadvantaged smokers and recent developments which might strengthen the focus on disadvantage will then be discussed. In addition, there are identifiable barriers which militate against the effectiveness of services when working with disadvantaged smokers. The effectiveness of the services reaching smokers from routine and manual groups and helping them to stop will then be assessed, drawing on recent research. This will include two recently commissioned NICE reviews focusing on the effectiveness of the services and the effectiveness of strategies to identify and retain smokers from routine and manual groups in treatment. The talk will finish by drawing together the implications of the above issues for the services.
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About the presenter
Ann McNeill is Professor of Health Policy and Promotion in the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Nottingham. Ann has worked in the tobacco field for nearly 25 years and her research and policy interests cover smoking cessation, harm reduction, smoking and mental health and the development of dependence. She has published widely, chaired international and European committees and in 1999 won a WHO award for outstanding work in tobacco control.
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