1,000 smokers expected to seek help in quitting in the new year

The Health Service Executive expects about 1,000 smokers will contact its new integrated Quit support service in the coming weeks as people give up smoking for the new year.

The free-of-charge service, which is being launched today will allow those who wish to quit smoking to contact the service via phone, text, email, Twitter and Facebook, while internet users can also live chat with advisers directly on the service’s website, quit.ie.

Dr Stephanie O’Keeffe, national director for health and wellbeing, said the service had been fully integrated after the HSE witnessed a drop in the number of people contacting the phone line, while the number of smokers accessing its website has risen.

She said it was important that smokers sought help in quitting as those who received support were twice as likely to succeed as those who did not, while those who engaged in nicotine replacement therapies were four times as likely to stop smoking as those who quit “cold turkey”.

Dr O’Keeffe said all those who contacted the free support network will be offered a 20-minute phone consultation with an adviser who will talk to the individual about their smoking habits, set a quit date and advise them on avoiding their individual triggers. Those who sign up to the service will receive a scheduled call on the quit date and once a week in the first month after quitting as well as getting a follow-up call at three months and 12 months.

Those quitting can also contact the Quit team between scheduled calls for extra support, speaking to the same adviser where possible. The service also provides online supports including a Facebook page which Dr O’Keeffe said has proven particularly effective: “Sticking with it is hard so having other people there to support you who are at the same stage of the process is a big help. It’s about not losing heart and hope – eventually you can quit.”

HSE figures indicate a reduction in the number of Irish adults who smoke from just under 28.9 per cent in March 2004 to 21.5 per cent by the end of 2013. Dr O’Keeffe said figures from the latest of a series of monthly telephone polls among Irish people aged 15 years and older had not been finalised but that early indications were they will indicate a continuing downward trend in the number of smokers.

This downward trend is in contrast to Eurobarometer polls which found that, while the proportion of Irish people who reported smoking fell from 32 per cent to 29 per cent between 2002 and 2006, this figure remained static at 29 per cent in 2012.