Smoking cessation program available

To help smokers quit or cut back smoking the Wellness Depot is offering a smoking cessation program called Freedom From Smoking.

The event is a seven-week, eight-session program set up with the help of the American Lung Association. Meetings will be held Mondays at 12:30 p.m. in Chappell 102.

“(Freedom from Smoking) is considered the gold standard of smoking cessation programs; it’s the most comprehensive program on the market,” said Amy Whatley, assistant director of wellness programs and certified facilitator of the program.

All levels of smokers, from social to heavy, are invited to join the program. Students, faculty and staff can all participate at no cost to them. This year the public will also be able to attend and participate in the program.

“We’ll also open it up to the public; we’ve never done that before,” Whatley said. “We’re only asking the public to pay $20 to cover the cost of the materials.”

Each week, group participants will meet to discuss their progress in the program. The group setting allows smokers share their experiences and goals.

“The supportive group is a key; a lot of people that do try to not smoke aren’t successful definitely after the first attempt, but even after many attempts. The group atmosphere makes a big difference with the success of the program,” said Laura Childs assistant director of student wellness programs.

Each meeting has a different purpose. The first three meetings focus on preparing to stop smoking. The fourth week is when the group participants attempt to quit.

“(The participants) kind of set a date for the fourth week and say ‘this is our quitting day,’ ” Childs said.

The final three meetings are for the group participants to talk about any difficulties or problems having cutting back or quitting smoking.

“Session five we do a 48-hour follow-up to see how everybody’s doing and from that point forward it’s about maintaining,” Whatley said.

At the end of the program the group holds a quitting ceremony honoring those who have completed the program, as well as those who have quit smoking.

“We recognize and reward those that have completed the program,” Whatley said. “We really try to make the last session kind of special and do something nice for them.”

While the goal of the program is to help smokers reduce or eliminate their urges to smoke, Childs said she’s happy to help anyone at least a little.

“When you work in the health-promotion field, even if you can help one or two individuals to stop or change an unhealthy behavior it’s successful,” Childs said.

Posted by Matt Chambers on Jan 22 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry