ASH Wales Wins BIG Lottery Funding to Create Young People’s Quit Smoking Service

ASH Wales awarded BIG Lottery funding to create Wales’s first smoking cessation service for young people

Public health charity ASH Wales has been awarded more than £850,000 from the BIG Lottery to fund Wales’s first smoking cessation service aimed specifically at young people.

The Young People’s Quit Smoking Service will fulfil a need that is unlike any other service currently available in Wales and will include online support using social media, text messaging and a telephone helpline tailored to teenagers as well as a volunteer programme.

Around 14,000 young people aged 11-15 try smoking every year in Wales. Research carried out by ASH Wales last year found that 60% of young smokers would like help to quit but just 95 young people under 18 were treated by Stop Smoking Wales, the national smoking cessation service for support in 2010/11(1).

The funding will enable ASH Wales to appoint seven new members of staff to run the youth service for three years including a Programme Manager; two telephone advisers; a training and education officer, a web and social media officer, a youth tobacco prevention specialist and a youth tobacco control support officer.

Chief Executive of ASH Wales, Elen de Lacy, said:

“There is currently a huge gap in smoking cessation support tailored to young people in Wales, but it is vital to reach them before a life-long addiction takes hold.

“We are delighted to receive this funding from the BIG Lottery which will enable us to offer dedicated support and advice to young people. Because most smokers experiment with cigarettes and get addicted to nicotine in their teenage years it is vitally important that a targeted service is available to young people to give them the facts about tobacco and the harm it causes. It’s also vital to have a service that is delivered in a variety of ways including through social media and online.

“Wales has youth smoking rates which are far too high with 14% of 15 year old girls and 9% of 15 year old boys regularly smoking (HBSC 2010) and these smokers are generally concentrated in areas of deprivation. A young person’s smoking cessation advice service is vital if we are to address and reduce the shocking statistics of youth smoking in Wales.”

In July 2011 ASH Wales undertook a major consultation exercise to gauge the views of young people aged 11-25 from across Wales and a wide range of stakeholders. ASH Wales received 1,049 responses to the survey which revealed that:

  • 73% of young smokers thought a youth specific quit smoking service was a good idea
  • Over half (53%) of young smokers would use an internet service aimed at young people for help quitting or to help others
  • 60% of smokers reported that they would like help to quit
  • 57% of young people who had family and friends who smoked would like information to support them to quit
  • 76% of smokers thought that they were addicted

Ms de Lacy added:

“Our research has shown that traditional youth focussed tobacco education programmes have left young people in a passive position. They are usually designed by adults, delivered by authority figures such as teachers and are often perceived as punitive. Such programmes fail to embrace the realities of young peoples’ lives. This Young People’s Quit Smoking Service will ensure young people design their tobacco control programme and that the programme resonates with the realities of their everyday experiences at home, school, and in their communities.”

Notes

Public health charity ASH Wales has been awarded more than £850,000 from the BIG Lottery to fund Wales’s first smoking cessation service aimed specifically at young people.

1. Source: Stop Smoking Wales

ASH Wales Unveils New Social Media Project to Combat Youth Smoking

ASH Wales will create the UK’s first social media youth smoking prevention programme to help combat youth smoking in Wales.

The innovative project, which is being funded by a grant from the BIG Lottery, will target 13-25 year olds throughout Wales and is designed to create Wales’s first online community where young people will be able to access the latest news and information about tobacco. Teenagers will be engaged in an interactive and creative way using games, video, photos, downloadable applications and chat.

The new project will further complement ASH Wales’s existing youth smoking prevention work including youth volunteering and peer health promotion programme aimed at addressing young smokers in Wales. Amongst Welsh 15 year olds, 16% of girls and 11% of boys regularly smoke.

ASH Wales Chief Executive Elen de Lacy said:

“This is a project that we believe in strongly and the funding from the BIG Lottery will mean we can progress it in the early New Year. I believe it will be successful in engaging with young people. Social media is the avenue that many young people use and we already know that social media campaigns have shown good evidence in changing attitudes and perceptions amongst this target audience.”

The social media project will support the priorities outlined in the Welsh Government’s Tobacco Control Action Plan to prevent young people from starting to smoke and reduce smoking prevalence rates to 16% by 2020.

One of ASH Wales’s young campaigners, Martha, 24, from Cardiff commented:

“Since becoming a peer health promoter with ASH Wales I have learnt a great deal about tobacco and the devastating impact it has on people’s lives and the communities they grow up in, and wherever possible I use this knowledge to pass information on to others. It’s really important that factual information is available to young people so they can make informed decisions about their own health.”

ASH Wales Responds to British Medical Association’s Research on Smoking in Cars

Research released by the British Medical Association (BMA) provides strong evidence that smoking in cars is harmful to non smoking passengers, with children and the elderly particularly vulnerable.

The BMA are calling on all UK governments to ban smoking in private vehicles because of the high levels of exposure to toxins.

ASH Wales Chief Executive Elen de Lacy responded:

“We already know that children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke with exposure increasing the risk of asthma and other respiratory diseases.

We were pleased when the Welsh Government announced during the Summer that they would consider banning smoking in cars when children are present but we want to see legislation introduced at an early stage along with a public awareness campaign. There is already strong public support for such a ban with four out of five Welsh adults supporting us, and BMA’s research shows why legislation is needed now to protect our children from dangerous toxins.”

ASH Wales Welcomes News on Tobacco Vending Machine Ban

ASH Wales has welcomed the overwhelming cross-party support given by Assembly Members today to protect children from accessing tobacco products from vending machines in Wales.

The Protection from Tobacco (Sales from Vending Machines) (Wales) Regulations 2011 were debated in Cardiff Bay this afternoon. The Regulations, which are due to come into force on 1st February 2012, will ban the sale of tobacco from vending machines throughout Wales.

ASH Wales Acting Chief Executive Carole Morgan-Jones said:

“We are delighted that the motion was passed today. One in 5 young smokers tell us they can purchase cigarettes from unsupervised vending machines. These regulations will protect children from having easy and illegal access to cigarettes.

“It’s an important public health measure to safeguard future generations and an integral part of a comprehensive strategy to tackle the harm that tobacco causes to Welsh communities. ASH Wales, along with members of the Wales Tobacco Control Alliance, look forward to the Welsh Government’s Tobacco Delivery Plan later this year.”

Number of Young Children Taking up Smoking

New figures released today by public health charity ASH Wales show that each day in Wales an estimated 38 teenagers who have never smoked before try smoking cigarettes, introducing them to a truly deadly product. The figures have been released ahead of a major conference taking place in Cardiff later this week.

ASH Wales and Alcohol Concern Cymru have teamed up to host the Tobacco and Alcohol: Learning from each other conference. Delegates from all over the UK and further afield will be discussing tobacco and alcohol policy and prevention at the Parc Thistle Hotel, Cardiff on 12th and 13th October 2011.

Analysis of data from the 2009/10 Welsh Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey reveals that on an annual basis, around 14,000 young people aged 11-15 who have never smoked before try smoking. That’s 269 a week.

Worryingly, the data show that between age 10 and 11, an estimated 1,000 young people tried smoking for the first time but between 12 and 13 this number more than doubled and between 13 and 14 the number trebled.

Carole Morgan-Jones, Acting Chief Executive, ASH Wales, commented:

“These figures are worrying. We know that young people progress quite quickly from experimenting with tobacco to regular use and as they get older they develop nicotine addiction. This is backed up by research we carried out in the summer of 2011. We surveyed over 1000 young people in Wales and found that a fifth of current smokers began smoking at 13 years of age. The majority (60%) of these young smokers reported that they would like help to quit and 76% thought that they were addicted.

“This is particularly concerning because early uptake of smoking is associated with heavier smoking patterns and a higher probability of becoming ill from a smoking related disease in later life. It illustrates why prevention programmes aimed at young people are so important. Breaking the cycle of childhood addiction to tobacco products is necessary to reduce the ongoing health, economic and social problems caused by tobacco in Wales.”

ASH Wales Congratulates Helen Jenkins on World Triathlete Title

Public health charity ASH Wales has offered its congratulations to triathlete Helen Jenkins after taking the World Triathlon Championship title in Beijing.

Helen joined ASH Wales as patron in October 2009 and met some of the charity’s volunteers who take part in the peer health promotion scheme. This scheme allows young people aged 16-24 to get involved in health promotion and advocacy work across Wales. The young people are offered a variety of health promotion training and personal development activities, enabling them to find out the truth about the harmful effects of tobacco and make their own informed choices.

Laura Rich, Youth Volunteer Co-ordinator said:

“Helen is a great role model for the young girls who join our programme and we are delighted that she is our patron. Her dedication and commitment to her sport is a real inspiration to so many young girls growing up in Wales who want to achieve the very best they can. That is why ASH Wales needs more young girls to join our youth advocacy programme and help us spread the message about the health effects of smoking to reduce the prevalence rates amongst teenage girls which is far too high.

“Our volunteers are delighted for her and we offer our congratulations to Helen and wish her all the best for the 2012 London Olympics.”

If you are interested in volunteering with ASH Wales, click here for more information.