As a health provider, you can make a difference in helping your clients quit smoking.
Address Tobacco Use
Screen for tobacco use and offer minimal contact interventions (MCI) at every opportunity to all clients who use tobacco products. MCI is a short intervention that is meant to encourage individuals to:
- Think about their tobacco use.
- Identify the reasons why they may want to change their behaviour.
- Increase their motivation to quit.
The 5A model of MCI is recognized internationally as a best practice in tobacco cessation. Use the 5As with all of your clients.
ASK about tobacco use at every contact.
ADVISE that quitting is the best thing they can do for their health.
ASSESS their readiness to quit.
ASSIST by providing brief counselling and pharmacotherapy.
ARRANGE for follow-up in your office or make a referral to Smokers’ Helpline Quit Connection or the Take Control Clinic.
Additional Resources
You Can Make It Happen: tools to integrate interventions (5A’s) into your daily practice to ensure that for every patient, at every visit, tobacco use status is queried and documented.
STOP on the Road: is a province-wide initiative that delivers smoking cessation treatment and counselling support to eligible Ontario smokers who wish to quit smoking
Tobacco Free RNAO: Integrating Smoking Cessation into Daily Nursing Practice
Northwest Cessation Community of Practice: a network to build capacity among community partners to coordinate and develop tobacco cessation programs and services
Moving on to Being Free™: a patient-focused, evidence-based, smoking cessation program, available for implementation at no cost through Dr. Patricia Smith at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine
For Further Information
Call the Tobacco Program: (807) 625-5900
STOP on the Road: (807) 625-8340
toll-free: 1-888-294-6630
Smokers’ Helpline: 1-877-513-5333