Increase your chance of quitting by 400 per cent

by Stuart Holly editor@clareecho.ie

PEOPLE are being urged to use evidence-based supports available to help them in County Clare in their bid to quit smoking.

Mary MacMahon, the Tobacco Program Lead with the HSE’s Midwest Community Healthcare organisation, is urging people to engage with their QUIT Midwest Clinics which increases people’s chances of smoking by 400 per cent.

World No Tobacco Day takes place next week on May 31 and as part of that, the Midwest QUIT team are working with the local authority and the hospital groups to raise awareness around smoking. Currently some 18 per cent of the Irish population are smokers, a figure which the government has ambitiously targeted to reduce to five per cent by 2025.

“One of the key things we’ve been involved with this year is the ‘Not around

Us’ campaign, a tobacco and vape free Clare campaign,”

Mary tells The Clare Echo “It’s about supporting people, to de-normalise smoking and to give people support to quit smoking. Éire Óg GAA Club recently launched as a ‘Not Around Us’ club, which we supported with Dena McGrath from the Local Authority here in Clare.”

The free QUIT program is delivered at various locations around Clare and is having a profound effect on smokers. The Clinics provide free support and tailor a plan to help individuals quit smoking.

“It’s lovely to see the progress and the huge investment that has been put into address tobacco from Healthy Ireland.

“We know that 18 per cent of people are still smoking, that’s from the most recent Healthy Ireland survey from people aged 15 and above, so it’s still a significant factor.

“We also know that the landscape of smoking has changed in that we’re now seeing electronic cigarettes and vaping becoming a growing area of concern and we want to get the word out there that there are evidence-based ways of quitting smoking and while vaping is there, and of course it’s up to people to choose how they quit, there are evidence based, licenced and quality controlled products there to help people to quit.”

Mary adds that it’s important that people planning of kicking the habit avail of supports as it will significantly increase their chances of succeeding.

“We know that many people will unfortunately try to quit unaided, and if they do that only 3-5 per cent will still not smoking by the end of the year. We are trying to support people to engage with our service which is free, we will talk about what are the licenced products available to help you to quit smoking and we’ll bring you through the HSE programme for quitting smoking.

“Our measure of success is that 48 per cent of people who come in should have quit within four weeks of setting a quit date, and we are reaching that target so it is working and it’s delivered by trained stop smoking specialists who will bring you through from a pre-quit assessment right through the plan you agree together [over the four weeks].

“That can be in the form of telephone, faceto-face which we prefer, or video calling and we continue to do that at three months, six months, and then at one year after you’ve quit smoking so there’s quite a level of intensive support there which make you more likely to stay quit.”

“The more people who know there are supports and evidence-based supports for quitting, the more likely they are to make a quit attempt and the more likely they are to succeed.”

Quit Midwest is part of the national QUIT service and provides stop smoking support through the provision of 20 weekly QUIT clinics throughout Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. Ten advisors are employed to deliver the HSE treatment program at the weekly clinics in locations including in Museum House on Francis Street, Ennis; in Kilrush Health Centre; Ennistymon Health Centre; Ennistymon Health Centre; and at the OPD on the Kilrush Road in Ennis, which is a dedicated maternity stop smoking clinic, while another clinic is being established in Shannon.

The QUIT Midwest Clinics are almost running at full capacity and those thinking about quitting smoking are encouraged to Call 065 6865 841 or email quit.midwest@hse.ie. For out of hours, call the quit line on 1800 201 203.