Stop smoking services merge to create larger and more innovative offer for Yorkshire

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Smokers in Yorkshire now have a new way to quit thanks to the launch of Yorkshire Smokefree, run by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Yorkshire Smokefree brings together existing services already provided by the Trust in Barnsley, Calderdale, Sheffield and Wakefield as well as newly acquired (April 2014) services in Rotherham and Doncaster. This means the Trust now provides a service across the whole of South Yorkshire, alongside large parts of West Yorkshire, totalling a population of nearly 2million people.

Yorkshire Smokefree, which was launched just ahead of Stoptober, now offers the region’s smokers a new way to quit, tailored to their individual preferences. The service includes an innovative online support programme which allows quitters to create personal plans, receive motivational emails, and chat online with qualified advisors.

Smokers can pick and mix their support to increase their chances of quitting. As well as the online support programme, which is available 24/7 from mobiles, tablets and computers, quitters can also choose telephone and face to face support.

Telephone support is available 7 days a week from qualified advisors who are on hand through extended opening hours to provide motivation and support either by phone or text.

More traditional face to face support is available in convenient locations across the region, including in hospital settings, local communities and pharmacies.

The innovative online quit programme enables people looking to kick the habit to set personal goals which are rewarded with online ‘badges’ to celebrate reaching significant quit milestones which can be easily shared via social media. The tool also provides smokers with motivational information on the benefits of quitting smoking based on their personal reason for quitting.

Dave Ramsay, deputy director of operations, said: “Our new Yorkshire Smokefree service unites our local services, centralising and making best use of our significant expertise in this important area of NHS service provision. Being a larger service it allowed us greater flexibility to stretch our resources to offer an even broader range of support and expertise than before, including our unique online quit tool, videos and live chat.

We’re now one of the largest NHS stop smoking services in the country and wanted to be able to offer our thousands of quitters a new way to quit, making the best use of new technology. In so many other areas of our life we are used to receiving online support – so why not in health services too?

We’re looking forward to monitoring the take-up of our new online offering, alongside our more traditional routes, to help reach a new audience and improve their experience with our service. We’d be very happy to talk to other areas of the health service who are interested in this approach.”

To find out more about Yorkshire Smokefree, visit www.yorkshiresmokefree.nhs.uk or call 0800 6120011.

Stop smoking services merge to create larger and more innovative offer for Yorkshire

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