” I want to say some more about New Year Eve resolutions or pledges. Common among smokers around the world is the pledge they make to give up.
This is great, but the common experience is that within a couple of months the pledge is put on the back burner and old habits re-emerge. Now is a good time to mount a campaign to talk to your constituents about the “give up the smokes pledge” and encourage them to call Quitline or visit their doctor to talk about developing a strategy and getting support to quit and stay quit.
It would be great for colleagues to get on the Yarning Place and share successful strategies and to post success stories. We might even want to host a pledge board and to monitor people’s pledges in three and six months’ time.
It has been a big year of learning and successes; please stay safe and healthy over the festive period and enjoy quality family time, drink alcohol responsibly and be smoke free of course “
Professor Tom Calma, National Coordinator for Tackling Indigenous Smoking, in his final Monthly Message of the year : Included in the National Best Practice Unit for Tackling Indigenous Smoking Update of the 12 December 2016 see below , is urging all Aboriginal organisations to take control and resolve in 2017 to implement smoke free workplaces.
‘Our mob have the right to work in a smoke free environment just like everyone else in this country.’
Visit the Tackling Indigenous Smoking portal on Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet to access resources to help you achieve smoke free workplaces,homes, cars and events:
For those individuals who are thinking of making a ‘give up smokes pledge’ this New Year, there are several supports available, including:
· Quitline – 13 78 48
· My QuitBuddy app (http://www.quitnow.gov.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/Content/quit-buddy)
· Quit for you Quit for Two app (http://www.quitnow.gov.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/Content/quit-now-apps)
· The QuitNow website: http://www.quitnow.gov.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/Content/home for other resources
· Your Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and /or Tackling Indigenous Smoking regional team can provide you with smoking cessation support.
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Hi colleagues,
Tackling smoking in the workplace is often put in the ‘too hard basket’. In 2016 this is no longer excusable.
If we want to make significant inroads into tackling our smoking rates, we must have the courage and will to take control of our workplaces and have Board members, CEOs and Managers and staff step up and set an example to their communities. Our mob have the right to work in a smoke free environment just like everyone else in this country.
On the 30 November this year, the Commonwealth Department of Health celebrated 30 years of being smoke free. Think of the benefits to all those working in this Department over these three decades. Health lead the way in the Commonwealth, with all other Departments becoming smoke free by 1988. Public and private sector offices implemented their own smoke free policies in the mid-1990s. Why is it that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, corporations and workplaces are either not smoke free, or do not enforce smoke free policies?
The Smoke Free Workplace Policy currently operating in the Department bans smoking and use of e-cigarettes/personal vaporisers within 15 metres of all health buildings at all time. There may be elements of this Policy that you can draw on, including ideas on the assistance available to staff to quit. So when you work with or interact with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation or group encourage them to develop a smoke free policy and give them some guidance on how to do it.
The TIS Portal includes resources on smoke free spaces: http://www.aodknowledgecentre.net.au/aodkc/aodkc-tobacco/tackling-indigenous-smoking/resources-that-work/tools-and-resources-to-support-activities-that-work. I encourage you to engage with colleagues on the Yarning Place to share strategies and ideas for smoke free workplace success.
The 30 November was also the fourth anniversary of commencement of Australia’s world-leading tobacco plain packaging measures. If we can be world leading on tobacco control for all Australians, we can become leaders in Indigenous tobacco control to save our people, our culture and our languages.
As this is my last message for 2016 I would urge you to place at the top of your New Year resolutions list adopting and enforcing smoke free workplace policies in your organisation and encouraging and helping our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to also realise these goals.
I want to say some more about New Year Eve resolutions or pledges. Common among smokers around the world is the pledge they make to give up. This is great, but the common experience is that within a couple of months the pledge is put on the back burner and old habits re-emerge. Now is a good time to mount a campaign to talk to your constituents about the “give up the smokes pledge” and encourage them to call Quitline or visit their doctor to talk about developing a strategy and getting support to quit and stay quit. It would be great for colleagues to get on the Yarning Place and share successful strategies and to post success stories. We might even want to host a pledge board and to monitor people’s pledges in three and six months’ time.
It has been a big year of learning and successes; please stay safe and healthy over the festive period and enjoy quality family time, drink alcohol responsibly and be smoke free of course. J
Regards TOM
