Today is the 37th Annual Great American Smokeout®. Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the annual event challenges smokers to start the quit process by joining thousands of other Americans in quitting for the day. The thought being – if you can quit for a day, you can quit for life.
Across the state the Arizona Smokers Helpline – or ASHLine – is highlighting the success of the free quit coach service. Serving Arizona for nearly 15 years, ASHLine combines the support of a quit coach with nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) such as the patch, gum, lozenge or medication to help improve a tobacco users change of quitting and staying quit. ASHLine boasts a 40 percent quit rate which is among the leaders of quitlines nationally. Contact ASHLine online or on the phone at 1-800-55-66-222.
Posts Tagged ‘Arizona Smoker’s Helpline’
The Great American Smokeout
November 15th, 2012CDC Kicks Off New Smoking Intervention Campaign Today
March 19th, 2012The CDC is kicking off a new national smoking cessation campaign today called “Tips from Former Smokers”. The new tobacco education campaign will begin airing today and will run nationally for 12 weeks. Ads include television, radio, billboard, magazine, newspaper, theater, and online placements. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other channels will help spread the campaign’s message more broadly, particularly among younger audiences.
The “Tips from Former Smokers” campaign features real people suffering as a result of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. Most of them were diagnosed with smoking-related illnesses when they were relatively young—many in their 30s and 40s, and one at only 18. Their stories send a powerful message: Quit smoking now. Or better yet—don’t start. To view the ads, please visit the campaign’s website and look under “Real Stories.”
A couple of months ago we expanded our arsenal of resources to help smokers quit tobacco with the addition of the Call it Quits app which is also on our Facebook page. The Call It Quits app on Facebook is another free tool brought to you by the ASHLine to help smokers win their battle against tobacco. The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, has been helping Arizonans quit for more than 15 years-and has a 40% quit rate at six months.
Kick the Habit
November 23rd, 2011This month the Arizona Smokers’ Helpline expanded its arsenal of resources to help smokers quit tobacco with the addition of the Call it Quits app which debuted on ASHLine’s Facebook page this week and will soon be introduced as an iPhone app. The Call It Quits app on Facebook and iPhone are another free tool brought to you by the ASHLine to help smokers win their battle against tobacco. The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, which has been helping Arizonans quit for more than 15 years- and has a 40% quit rate at six months.
Free CME program for behavioral health providers on tobacco cessation
October 10th, 2011Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman, and the College of Public Health will present a free CME conference “Evidence-based Interventions for Tobacco Cessation in Populations with Mental Illness Challenges,” Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. to behavioral health providers. The conference will take place at the Fiesta Resort Conference Center (2100 S. Priest Dr., Tempe, AZ 85282) and teleconference will take place in Tucson at Community Partnership of Southern Arizona (2502 N. Dodge Blvd., Ste. 130, Tucson, AZ 85716).
The purpose of this CME activity is to increase awareness of the effectiveness and benefits of using a quitline for individuals who want to quit tobacco use, and to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to assess and treat tobacco dependence in smokers with co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders.
Please register online by Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, by clicking on the following link: REGISTER NOW. For additional information or questions, please contact: Shannon Vaffis, MPH, assistant director, community relations & referral, Arizona Smokers’ Helpline at (520) 320-6818 or vaffis@email.arizona.edu. Click here for conference information, including agenda and learning objectives.
Maricopa Integrated Health System Goes Smoke Free
June 10th, 2011The Maricopa Integrated Health System has been recognized as a QUITZone for going smoke-free. Our Bureau of Tobacco & Chronic Disease and the UA Healthcare Partnership honored them this week for their efforts to “walk-the-talk” in promoting healthy lifestyles and combating the health and cost burdens of tobacco use and secondhand smoke.
To help achieve a tobacco-free workplace they created positive signage, tools and training for all staff to use when helping others quit tobacco, and direct links to the Arizona Smokers’ HelpLine (ASHLine). While employees, volunteers, patients, and visitors are not required to quit tobacco use, they’re not allowed to use tobacco products while on campus. When they decide to quit (70% of tobacco users want to quit), they’re provided with resources known to succeed. Congratulations to our friends at MIHS!
Arizonans are Kicking the Habit / World No Tobacco Day
May 31st, 2011Over 166,000 Arizonans kicked their tobacco habit in 2010. Our smoking rate now stands at only 13.5%. This news is exciting when you consider that many states have seen increases in tobacco use over the last couple of years. This brand-new data isn’t published yet, but our team thinks that this will put is neck-and-neck with Utah for the lowest smoking rate in the nation.
How did we get here you ask? We’ve been working hard with our community partners have not taken their foot off the accelerator in their statewide effort to help people to quit and to prevent kids from starting. Calls to the Arizona Smokers Helpline have soared because of our targeted “call to action” campaign. For example, in the first six weeks of our You Can Quit- We Can Help campaign, the ASHline received more calls than it had in the previous five months. Enrollment rates have climbed, and the ASHLine has a nearly 40% quit rate after six months (best in the country). We also think that our youth prevention campaign and the implementation of the Smoke Free Arizona Act in 2007 are factors that have helped us make progress.
We expect this recent success to continue as more Arizonans see their family members, friends, and co-workers break their addiction to tobacco. The social determinants are now weighed heavily in favor of healthy lifestyle choices and being tobacco-free is now the norm!
But that’s not the case in the rest of the world -that’s why the World Health Organization (WHO) set aside today – May 31, 2011 – as World No Tobacco Day. According to the WHO website:
This year, the tobacco epidemic will kill nearly 6 million people, including some 600,000 nonsmokers who will die from exposure to tobacco smoke. By 2030, it could kill 8 million.
So keep up the good work Arizonans – we’re showing the world it is possible to kick the habit.
The President reportedly quit smoking, are you ready?
February 9th, 2011Reports from Washington today say the President hasn’t smoked in almost a year. He said last summer he’s spent his adult life trying to give up cigarettes. Research shows that quitting is easier if you have help – Arizona Smokers’ Helpline can help you. We have resources on the phone, online and even medication to help you achieve your goal. If you are ready, call the ASHLine at 1-800-55-66-222 or visit the website .
Arizona Breaking Through the National Smoking Trend
September 10th, 2010A new report from the CDC this week showed that the smoking rate across the US has stayed flat at about 20% over the last 5 years. Not so in Arizona, where we’ve decreased from 20% in 2005 to 16% in 2009, according to our latest BRFS report. As is the case across the country, the folks in Arizona that make the least amount of money are the most likely to smoke, which is why we’ve focused our tobacco prevention and cessation (quitting) efforts on that demographic- with aggressive targeted marketing, quitline services (including quit coaches) and by paying AHCCCS (using our voter-protected tobacco control funds) to cover medicine to help people succeed. We also think that our youth prevention campaign and the implementation of the Smoke Free Arizona Act in 2007 are factors that have helped us buck the national trend.
