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Because the TFHS
program occurs in high school, a small percentage of the target audience are already
regular smokers who are less influenced by a tobacco prevention campaign. However, it is
important to encourage current smokers to quit.
It is very important, however, that your cessation promotion component be LOW-KEY.
Making this a major message of your overall campaign will indirectly suggest that many
students smoke which is counter to the social norm message you want to send. As noted in
the motivational interviewing information below, it also is important to take a low-key,
soft-sell approach to current smokers. Otherwise, you risk making them more resistant to
the idea of quitting. Therefore, it is best to consider cessation promotion as your
"covert operation." Your mass media efforts should encourage quitting for the
few who currently smoke and direct those who smoke to materials and information they can
obtain quietly and confidentially.
For those who are not sure
about quitting.
Some smokers don’t really want to quit or are unsure about quitting, usually
because they are afraid that they will not succeed in quitting. Motivational interviewing
has been used in the field of smoking cessation to encourage those who are unsure about
quitting to make an attempt. Some of the principles of motivational interviewing can be
incorporated in your anti-tobacco campaign. These include:
- Understand the smoker. Before you produce a cessation promotion component to your
anti-tobacco campaign, it is critical that you perform focus groups or field interviews to
attempt to understand those who smoke, why they smoke, and the barriers that prevent them
from quitting.
- Accept and affirm the person. Demonizing the smoker is likely to make them more
resistant to quitting. To quit smoking, the person has to have their self-esteem and sense
of control over their lives bolstered, not attacked. Your marketing materials must be
strongly opposed to smoking but also respectful of those who smoke and encouraging of
their own internal abilities to quit.
- Reinforce the smoker’s own desires. Most smokers want to quit, but various things
get in the way of quitting or prevent them from doing so. Make sure your materials focus
on their desire to quit. Most smokers want to quit but feel that they are not capable or
ready to quit. Reinforce their ability and confidence in quitting.
- Monitor readiness to quit. People are at different places in the quit process. A few
have not thought about quitting and have no overt desire to quit. Many have thought about
quitting but are not ready to do it soon. Others are prepared to make a quit attempt in
the near future. You want to move those who haven’t thought about quitting to think
about it. You want to move those who have thought about it to make it sooner rather than
later, and you want to move those who are prepared to do it soon to take action and do it
now.
- Affirm choice. Encouraging cessation should focus on it being their choice to do. Put it
on the teen who smokes to make the choice to quit.
For more information on motivational interviewing and how it may be applicable to your
cessation promotion work, go to:
http://www.motivationalinterview.org/
If your school or school system has counselors to assist students with stopping
smoking, you may want to direct them to this site for information and training in this
method.
- School-sponsored assistance. Your school or school district may have a program or
counselors available to help students who want to quit smoking. If so, promote the
availability of this assistance in your campaign.
- Community-sponsored assistance. Most hospitals and local public health departments have
smoking cessation programs which are available to teen as well as adult smokers. Although
these programs are mostly attended by adults, the teen smoker may find this option
attractive if they are uncomfortable with a school-sponsored program.
- Medications. Nicotine replacement treatments such as nicotine patches and gum have not
been found particularly helpful for teen smokers and are not approved for use by those
under 18. Some older students, however, may be able to use these products and may find
this option preferable to group or individual counseling methods.
Self-help methods. There are self-help materials and programs designed for teen
smokers. These programs are generally not as effective as group or individual counseling
but may be attractive to teen smokers who do not want to be involved in more formal
methods. These methods include: CDC’s "You Can Quit Smoking" guide (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit/canquit.htm).
Other materials are available at:
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