Every conversation counts. Your professional advice can start a life saving quit attempt and help reduce health inequalities in our communities.
Your role
NICE guidance (NG209) recommends that at every opportunity you ask people if they smoke, and advise them to stop in a way that fits their lifestyle.
As a health or social care professional, the fastest way to do this is Very Brief Advice (VBA): a 30 second intervention shown to trigger quit attempts.
- Ask if they smoke.
- Advise that stopping is the best thing for their health and that support is available.
- Act by offering a referral or signposting to local stop smoking support.
SmokeFree Bristol Essentials eLearning guides you through how to deliver Very Brief Advice. It’s free, online and takes around 30 minutes to complete.
Find more training and resources and information about SmokeFree Bristol.
Why you need to talk about smoking
- After age 40, each year of continued smoking costs about 3 months of life expectancy.
- Many people smoke because nicotine is physically addictive, not out of choice.
- People who smoke die 10 years earlier than people who don’t.
- Smoking is the single largest contributor to health inequalities.
The impact on communities
- Smoking clusters in families and communities and is reinforced by social norms and nicotine addiction.
- Where smoking is common, it’s normalised.
- Children with parents who smoke are twice as likely to have tried cigarettes and four times more likely to smoke regularly.
- Two thirds of people who try one cigarette go on to become regular smokers.