Helping the Smokers to Quit the Habit - Paper Example

Community mobilization is one of the most popular forms of interventions for quitting smoking, especially among teens. The Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT) provides protocols that outline a number of advocacy projects which champion for the need to live a healthy life. For instance, community experts use persuasion model for communication and advice from health experts as part of smoking control strategies (Maglione, Maher, Ewing, Colaiaco, Newberry, Kandrack, & Hempel, 2017). Notably, experts use individual-oriented strategies to achieve the highest number of people who quit smoking in a community. The individual-oriented strategies are achieved through the use of public education, overemphasis on positive community norms, and the application of economic policies.

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Discussion

First, interventionists can improve the capacity of the society to rehabilitate smoking behavior by increasing resources and services aimed at minimizing the use of cigarettes. To elaborate, the resources must be integrated into community institutions and groups in order to reduce logistical barriers (Maglion et al. 2017). Furthermore, interventionists put more emphasis on social values and norms that discourage smoking in the community. Moreover, practitioners can improve the influence of existing policies that discourage smoking in the community. For example, experts can employ the state laws which control the use of tobacco in public places, thus, improving the decision of the smokers to attempt cessation (Maglion et al. 2017). Economic factors such as increasing taxes on tobacco, reducing spaces for cigarettes, and establishing quotas on the distribution of tobacco can lead to cessation of smoking. Lastly, quitting cigarette smoking behavior can be attained through public education and creation of awareness on the dangers of smoking.

However, the intervention strategies for smoking cessation can face a number of challenges during implementation (Ockene, Hayes, Churchill, Crawford, Jolicoeur, Murray, & Adams, 2016). For instance, public education can be expensive especially among the school dropouts who are slow learners. Second, anti-smoking norms applied in the community can be outdated and may not conform to the contemporary societal requirements. Lastly, interventionists can face rebellion from business persons while applying unfavorable economic policies such as increase of taxes to reduce smoking (Ockene et al. 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, advocacy for helping smokers to quit drug can be presented in a number of ways. For instance, community mobilization is a basic mechanism for advocacy to the cessation of smoking. Notably, community mobilization is carried out through public education, increasing resources aimed at minimizing drug use, and applying social norms and values which discourage drug use. Lastly, cessation of smoking can be achieved by introducing economic policies which promote cessation.

References

Maglione, M. A., Maher, A. R., Ewing, B., Colaiaco, B., Newberry, S., Kandrack, R., ... & Hempel, S. (2017). Efficacy of mindfulness meditation for smoking cessation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Addictive Behaviors.

Ockene, J. K., Hayes, R. B., Churchill, L. C., Crawford, S. L., Jolicoeur, D. G., Murray, D. M., ... & Adams, M. (2016). Teaching medical students to help patients quit smoking: outcomes of a 10-school randomized controlled trial. Journal of general internal medicine, 31(2), 172-181.