Successful Brief Interventions for Smoking Cessation – Johns College

David Phelan Facilities Co Ordinator of Respond Housing delivered a brief Intervention for Smoke Cessation..

David Phelan Facilities Co Ordinator of Respond Housing delivered a brief Intervention for Smoke Cessation to residents in Johns College last November 2016

Johns College residentsTwo residents Goff Harris and James Lannigan who attended this intervention have managed to quit and are delighted with the results.

Geoff smoke more than 40 cigs a day and has kicked the habit and James was on 35 a day also has not smoked since November.

Geoff said “I feel great and I am saving myself a fortune”. “This is the best decision I made to go on this course”

James says “He is more than 50 days off them now and he is sleeping better and his wife is delighted that he doesn’t smoke any more.

Group support

Group courses are usually six weeks long and meet once a week for about an hour. In the first session the members of the group introduce themselves, they review past attempts to quit, determine reasons for quitting and set a quit date for the group. At follow-up meetings, the residents discuss their progress, address any difficulties, swap coping tips, and encourage one another to stay quit. All residents carbon monoxide levels were measured (before and after quitting), their level of nicotine addiction, and recommend medical treatment.

Brief Intervention

Brief Interventions are a range of effective behaviour change interventions that are client-centred, short in duration and provided in a variety of settings by healthcare professionals. They use an empathic approach, emphasising self-efficacy, personal responsibility for change and information giving including details of resources available to support change.

For smoking cessation, brief interventions involve opportunistic advice, discussion, negotiation and encouragement and typically take between 3 and 10 minutes. Interventions may involve referral to a more intensive treatment. For more information please contact David Phelan on 051 840200

Posted January 2017:  David Phelan