From January 15 to 21 special efforts across Ontario and Canada are being made to encourage people to stop smoking, as part of National Non Smoking Week.
This year’s theme, “Breaking up is hard to do” speaks to the core of nicotine addiction. Considering that smoking is responsible for more deaths each year than drug and alcohol abuse, car crashes, AIDS, murder and suicide put together and that every eight seconds, someone dies from tobacco use (WHO), it’s clear that nicotine has a firm grip on those who consume it. But there are ways to break up with nicotine—this involves research, policy, cessation support and most of all, will power.
How can CAMH help?
- CAMH’s Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) is a world-leading research group housed within CAMH. Its Tobacco Policy Group works to coordinate CAMH’s tobacco-related expertise towards focused, timely, research-based priorities.
- CAMH’s TEACH Project is at the forefront of training and capacity-building to better-equip healthcare professionals to deliver tobacco cessation programs.
- The Nicotine Dependence Clinic offers several specialized outpatient treatments for anyone who wants to quit or reduce their tobacco use. We offer assessment, medical consultation, group counselling and medications to quit/reduce smoking. Our clinic provides service to clients with concurrent substance use and/or mental illness as well other medical conditions.
- Ten tips to quit smoking
- Primary Care Addiction Toolkit
- Do You Know... Tobacco
Are you driven to quit?
Weedless Wednesday is the pinnacle of National Non-Smoking Week. It emphasizes the importance of smokers to take a ‘one-day at a time’ approach to quitting. For those that are thinking of quitting smoking or have recently, the Canadian Cancer Society’s annual
Driven to Quit Challenge offers the chance to win a car, dream vacations and cash prizes.
- to educate Canadians about the dangers of smoking;
- to prevent people who do not smoke from beginning to smoke and becoming addicted to tobacco;
- to help people quit smoking;
- to promote the right of individuals to breathe air unpolluted by tobacco smoke;
- to denormalize the tobacco industry, tobacco industry marketing practices, tobacco products, and tobacco use; and
- to assist in the attainment of a smoke-free society in Canada.