One of the most important things you can do for your clients is to address their tobacco use. Even if you cannot provide intensive treatment to help your client quit completely, you have an important role to play in reducing tobacco use among your clients. You can still have an impact by screening for tobacco use among all your clients. Simply asking your client about his/her tobacco use sends the message that this is an important issue.
The 5A’s provides a framework to highlight what every healthcare practitioner can do in their clinical practice:
Here is another option for those that only have 1 to 2 minutes with a client but still want to make a difference. Very Brief Advice (VBA) suggests you Ask all clients about their tobacco use and then Advise the client by offering support to quit. For example:
"John, the best way to quit smoking is through a combination of counselling and medications and I can help you with that.”
VBA takes a more directive approach and combines advice with information on how to quit (Aveyard, Begh, Parsons, & West, 2012).
Quitlines have been established in many countries to provide support and information to people who want to quit their tobacco use. Potential clients usually have a variety of options to access quitlines services. For instance, quitlines usually provide convenient and flexible services such as telephone, internet and texting interventions. To learn more about Ontario’s quitline and how to refer your clients, visit Smoker’s Helpline website: https://www.smokershelpline.ca/.