During
the 16th World Conference in Durban, WONCA President Michael Boland
announced a Global Call for Action on Tobacco Cessation.
To provide global leadership in this effort, Drs Boland and Rick Botelho
are co-chairing an Ad hoc Task Force on Tobacco cessation.
Dr. Botelho, in collaboration with the regional Task force co-chairs
(each region will organize its own actvities), will lead the internal workings
of the Task Force. Dr. Boland will address external political and policy issues
that relate to other organizations (such as the WHO, national governments and
Non-governmental agencies) and tobacco control issues. He will take the lead
in developing WONCA position statements that can be used for a variety of political
and economic purposes with the organizations listed above – for example, helping
member organizations work with national governments and other bodies to get
financial support to support tobacco cessation and control initiatives.
The
Task Force will collaborate with, and build on the activities of member organizations
to work on the following goals:
Develop innovative
programs for addressing tobacco cessation at both the organizational
(practice setting) and clinical (patient interaction) levels.
Develop and conduct
“Train the trainers” programs at WONCA meeting, before, during and after
the conferences.
·
Develop
smoking cessation programs for medical students, trainees/residents and
doctors who are tobacco users particularly in countries where the smoking
rates are high in this group.
Promote the use
of continuous improvement methods in developing educational, organizational,
and clinical approaches to tobacco cessation
· Promote research activities between member organizations
Promote appropriate policy to address tobacco cessation and control
·
Foster
international collaboration in addressing the above goals.
·
Seek funding
from external sources to work on these activities.
A
small budget has been approved to conduct a survey of member organizations to
benchmark what they are doing to address tobacco cessation and control. This
survey will assist member organizations to identify their strengths, needs and
areas for improvement. Data from this survey may help these organizations to
network more effectively and learn from one another. Furthermore, this data
will identify areas of strengths and needs; this information could help program
committees to showcase ‘best practices” at regional and international conferences
that could also address the needs of other member organizations in addressing
their plans for improvement. This survey will be repeated after the 2004 WONCA
conference to assess whether the Task Force and WONCA conference activities
have helped member organizations to work on their improvement plans in addressing
tobacco cessation and control.
Professor Rick Botelho,
CoChair of the Ad Hoc Task Force on Tobacco Cessation
A
small group meeting at the World council Meeting was held prior to the Durban
WONCA conference meeting. They proposed the following suggestions that are ranked
in decreasing order of ease:
·
Organise smoke-free
WONCA conferences and document this announcement on all brochures and publications
·
Conduct a membership
survey on tobacco cessation and control
·
Develop a website
to promote the activities of the Task Force and provides online resources
·
Develop tobacco
cessation programmes for doctors who smoke, particularly in countries where
the smoking rate among doctors is similar to the general population.
·
Enhance smoking
cessation skills among health care professionals
·
Tailored strategies
for tobacco prevention and cessation for different countries, cultures, and
urban/suburban /rural populations
Draft
proposals for a tobacco cessation and control survey developed by Rick Botelho
and Leo Pas were circulated and discussed. The aim of this survey is to help
member organizations assess their strengths, needs and areas for improvement
in addressing tobacco cessation and control issues. The outcome of the survey
will help:
Member organizations
to share and learn from one another’s experiences
·
WONCA program
committees to design their conference to address the needs of member organizations
·
Influence
national policies that increase the funding for training health care practitioners
to address tobacco cessation
Dr.
Michael Boland, CoChair
Professor
Rick Botehlo, CoChair
Ad
Hoc Task Force on Tobacco Cessation
If
you are interested in this work, email:
rick_botelho@urmc.rochester.edu
or
visit: www.MotivateHealthyHabits.com