
Below is the story from the newsletter. You can read the rest of the newsletter here.
The Southern Stop Smoking Service, run by Nga Kete Matauranga Pounamu Charitable Trust, has eight coaches providing free stop smoking services across Southland and Otago.
The approach works – in 2017 the Southern Stop Smoking Service received 2082 referrals, and of those 660 set a quit date and 453 became a validated quit – a 68 percent quit rate.
Joanne Te Tai, Invercargill Metro Stop Smoking Coach, Southern Stop Smoking Service: “I have a background in social services and administration work and have been working at Nga Kete as a stop smoking coach for the past three years. Our entire Southern Stop Smoking team re-trained as stop smoking practitioners, graduating in December 2017.
I’m passionate about the role because of the impact smoking has had on my own wha -nau. I like that our team is building readiness and supporting change – for the clients, their wha nau and generations to come.
I enjoy building relationships and watching confidence grow in a face-to-face setting. Success ranges, but I get a lot of reward from people over 60 or 70 who have smoked for 40-plus years and never tried to stop, then successfully leave the programme smokefree and confident.
Smoking cessation is our soul work and it’s our speciality – all our training, learning and knowledge is specific to that. The value we add is having a trusting relationship with GPs so they’re confident to refer, knowing we will support a client who needs it.”
Dr Callum Fowler, He Puna Waiora Wellness Centre, Invercargill:
“It’s a really important part of a GP’s job to ask a patient if they want to stop smoking. The introduction of local stop smoking services has made it easier, but I’ve always been comfortable asking patients the question.
“The Southern Stop Smoking Service gives us another resource to refer patients for support, and I feel great about referring patients to it, if the patient agrees.
“I’ve had a lot of patients able to give up successfully with what we have put in place. In my view, the medication I dispense is only one part of assisting a patient to stop smoking successfully. The support given by the Southern Stop Smoking Service is crucial to maintaining that change.”