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Integrating smoking care in community service organisations to reach disadvantaged people: Findings from the Smoking Matters project
Author(s) -
O'Brien Jon,
Geikie Arya,
Jardine Andrew,
Oakes Wendy,
Salmon Allison
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1071/he10176
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , government (linguistics) , medicine , population health , population , community health , nursing , smoking cessation , intervention (counseling) , public health , environmental health , psychology , family medicine , public relations , medical education , political science , philosophy , linguistics , pathology , law
Issue addressed Smoking rates among very disadvantaged populations groups are much higher than for the general Australian population. Smoking makes a significant contribution to the reduced health and material well‐being experienced by these groups. Community service organisations have been suggested as a promising setting to provide smoking cessation support for disadvantaged people, but few initiatives have explored the feasibility of this strategy. Methods The project involved work with five non‐government community service organisations as demonstration sites for the integration of smoking care. Sites were offered staff training, smoking‐care resources and policy support to address tobacco in the service environment and in their work with clients. Pre‐and post‐training surveys were undertaken with training participants and a follow‐up survey was conducted after three months. Survey questions assessed staff members' confidence, knowledge and skills to address smoking, as well as changes in staff practice. Results The response rate for the surveys before and after the training sessions was almost 100%, with 63 of the 64 participants providing post‐training surveys. The response rate of the three‐month follow‐up survey was approximately 50% with 34 respondents. Findings indicate that staff did develop confidence, skills and knowledge to address tobacco issues. Some organisations made changes to policy, such as introducing designated smoking areas and providing financial support for clients and staff to quit smoking. Practice change was evident among some staff, particularly in addressing smoking as part of routine case management and use of the 5A's brief intervention framework. Conclusions The project findings lend support to the view that community service organisations could play a role in providing smoking care to disadvantaged people. So what Integrating smoking care into the work of community service organisations is a new and potentially effective means to reach disadvantaged groups with high smoking rates. If implemented widely enough, such measures could make an important contribution to reducing smoking prevalence and related harm among disadvantaged people.