YooQuit Care: Helping mental healthcare staff to encourage smokers to quit
| Author(s)
Leena Sankla
| | Presenter(s) |
Leena Sankla Director of Public Health & Lifestyle Services, Solutions 4 Health Ltd, Reading | Abstract Evidence shows that people with a mental illness are 70% more likely to smoke compared to somebody without a mental illness and because of their heavy dependency on nicotine, they are perceived to be a difficult group to engage with to quit smoking. Previously smoking cessation was not a high priority as smoking was often seen to be a control factor in relieving stress and anxiety amongst mental health patients and Healthcare Professionals did not feel confident to encourage them to quit smoking.
Solutions 4 Health introduced YooQuit Care, an online interactive learning system. YooQuit Care allows professionals to gain the knowledge and skills required for effective brief intervention. It contains a whole host of tips for how to approach the issue of smoking in a non-judgemental and supportive way, and if appropriate, refer on to the Smokefreelife Berkshire stop smoking service.
Following completion of the online training in the BHFT, YooQuit Care has been proven to significantly increase the confidence levels of staff, with 93% of the 1500 users feeling more comfortable in brief intervention and 86% feeling assured that they can successfully help smokers to quit.
YooQuit Care lets Healthcare Professionals work through the programme at their own pace, through practical exercises and features that aim to increase confidence in carrying out brief interventions. YooQuit Care’s scrapbook feature allows the user to drag and drop information to come back to for future reference in their own time, complete informative quizzes and review their confidence levels through questionnaires.
| Presenter biography Leena Sankla is the Director of Public Health & Lifestyle services and has overall responsibility for a number of key Public Health initiatives being delivered nationally. This includes smoking cessation, weight management, diabetes management, chronic disease self-management, NHS Health Checks & Falls Prevention for the elderly. This is combined with on the ground delivery with innovative digital platforms that support mHealth, mCessation and remote vital sign monitoring.
Her particular expertise is in reaching hard to reach groups, specifically Black Minority & Ethnic (BME) groups, socially deprived groups, pregnant smokers, and routine and manual workers.
She has worked closely with Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai and is a Master Trainer on Chronic Disease Self Management & Diabetes Self Management from Stanford School of Medicine.
| Source of funding: Solutions 4 Health
| Declaration of interest: None
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