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Five years inside – smoking cessation in Doncaster prisons
Denise Hinds, Smoking Cessation Specialist (Prisons), Doncaster Stop Smoking Service, UK and Angela Batty, Stop Smoking Advisor (Prisons), Doncaster PCT, UK
Abstract
Doncaster PCT has four local prisons with a total population of over 2,000 prisoners at any one time. I have been leading on delivery to all four prisons for the last five years and the service continues to evolve to meet the requirements of both the PCT and the prison service. During that time the service has been awarded a PCT Trust Board award for recognition of best practice and had a runner up place at the regional health and social care awards. We currently run 12 sessions for prisoners over the four jails, consistently seeing an average of 100 prisoners per week, and sessions for prison staff where required. The quit rate is between 50 and 60%, CO verified.
Since January 2009 we have been joint-working with PCT commissioners and the prisons, and have subsequently changed our delivery of the service from six week block sessions to a rolling programme which has led to an increase in prisoners seen, a decrease in DNAs and brought the waiting list down to a level which has meant that prisoners now only have a two week wait from application to access to the course. There is regular monitoring of all aspects of the service offered, including waiting time and targets, by the commissioners at the PCT, and this supported by our own in house data officer who collates our figures, breaking them down into percentage of quitters, DNAs, BME access to the service and target projections.
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About the presenters
Ms Denise Hinds has worked as a Smoking Cessation Specialist (Prisons) for Doncaster PCT for five years. Previously worked in Primary Care and Health and Regeneration. She established the service in Doncaster’s four prisons using the Department of Health’s Acquitted Programme in 2003. Also works as a part time lecturer at Doncaster College.
Angela Batty has worked in the community sector with hard to reach and excluded clients as an NVQ Assessor and Verifier, before coming to work in the NHS over the last seven years. She has worked in Sexual Health and in range of settings with smoking cessation clients, before working solely within the prison environment over the last two years.
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