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Look after your lungs: targeting ‘routine and manual’ smokers to motivate quit attempts
Eileen Streets and Miriam Bell, Tobacco Control Programme Managers, The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Liverpool, UK
Abstract
Commissioning services that target high-risk groups within the workplace will motivate uptake of workplace stop smoking services. People in routine and manual households are more likely to smoke than those in professional households (31% compared with 18%) The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation has developed a training programme that aims to increase awareness of the effect of smoking and secondhand smoke and how best to access stop smoking support. Smoker’s stated their motivation to quit was increased by the multidimensional workshop which was not aimed solely
at smoking behaviour but provided education on healthy lifestyle choices. 763 staff attended workshops across all shift patterns.
Following the training across three North West inner city ‘routine and manual’ workplaces knowledge of the toxic content of smoke and availability of stop smoking treatments on prescription increased between 22% – 56% and between 58.5% – 81% of smokers stated they intended to quit smoking.
Mathew Sherlock, (25), a postal worker at Royal Mail says “I knew smoking was bad for me but after the workshop I thought I really needed to try harder. The information in the session made me determined to try and quit and stay the course.”
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About the presenters
Eileen Streets has been working in Tobacco Control for two years. She originally qualified as a Physiotherapist and has a broad experience in general management within acute and primary care. She manages the development and delivery of the Look After Your Lungs Programme.
Miriam Bell established the workplace stop smoking program that developed into one of the most successful programs in Merseyside. Most recently she has set up the Roy Castle Fag Ends Specialist Stop Smoking Service in North Staffordshire
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