NYAPRS Note: The following comes to us from our friends at CSPNJ, whose recent wellness conference highlighted how collaborative relationships between providers and consumers can enhance the well-being and health awareness of both.
Assessment of Smoking Culture for Peer Support Settings
CSPNJ Words of Wellness; Vol 9 Num 3, Spring 2015
The ‘culture’ of a setting influences how things are done, the prevailing attitudes, and how those attitudes shape people’s actions. Words of Wellness (WOW) readers are very aware of the negative impact of smoking on the lives of both smokers and non-smokers. Many of us involved in peer support settings such as Community Wellness Centers, Wellness Respite Centers, and Clubhouses have observed that our culture in these settings, as it relates to helping one another quit smoking, varies greatly between settings. In our observations there may be a big disconnect between stated policies and rules and “the way things really are,” (even in many centers today).
The safety of e-cigarettes and other “vapor” devices has not yet been established http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/electronic-cigarettes-e-cigarettes and http://smokefree.gov/e-cigarettes and http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm172906.htm and it is not yet learn whether “vaping” is an effective way to quit smoking. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1846627 As of February 2014, the best advice that our WOW team can offer you is to include “vaping” in your smoking policies and to continue to check reliable sources for information, such as the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.
The box on this page contains an “Assessment of Smoking Culture” that can be used at these various kinds of peer support settings (and potentially adapted for self-help groups, professional service settings, residences, etc.). This assessment is not based on research, and we hope it is used in a practical manner. We hope it is useful for your group to create an awareness of how you can collectively help one another live a longer life.
There is no “official scoring” for this assessment. If your setting scores at or near the maximum of 15, you may be paying attention to this important issue, and hopefully the health of your membership is improving.
If your setting scores at or below 50% (a score of 7 or less), you might want to initiate discussions and actions to address the areas where you have a low score.
Your group may want to think about whether helping members to reduce smoking is important to you, and consider what you may want to do to help peers.
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Assessment of Smoking Culture Rating Scale |
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Smoking Rules ___We allow smoking in our vehicles and/or somewhere inside our building (score 0) ___We do not allow smoking in our vehicles or inside our building, but there is no enforcement, and people do it sometimes (score 1) ___We do not allow smoking in our vehicles or inside our building, and we consistently enforce these rules (score 3)
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Getting Cigarettes ___Cigarettes and other tobacco products are sold inside our facility at our canteen or in vending machines (score 0 for yes, 2 for no)
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Smoke-Free Access ___You cannot get into our facility without walking through a smoking area (score 0) ___We have some kind of “smoke free route,” but it is out of the way or rarely used (score 1) ___The main access to our space is via a “smoke free route” (score 2)
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Smoke-Free Image ___Our outdoor smoking area is visible from the street (score 0 for yes, 1 for no)
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Control of Smoke Odors ___At our site, the smell from smokers and their belongings lingers on program furniture and in closets, even if we enforce our non-smoking policy (score of 0) ___We provide a space for storing coats and belongings of non-smokers, so that they are not exposed to the smell of smoke from smokers’ belongings (score of 1) |
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Sharing Information About Smoking Cessation ___Information about smoking cessation resources and the harm of smoking is basically not visible in our facility, and rarely or never discussed at our meetings (score 0) ___ ___Information about smoking cessation resources, and the harm of smoking is somewhere in our facility (but not so easy to find) and is rarely discussed at our meetings (score 1) Information about smoking cessation resources, and the harm of smoking is prominently displayed in our facility and discussed at our meetings (score 2)
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