A total of twenty-five professionals from the Healthcare Services Management of the Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, are being trained in a course to treat smokers and promote smoking cessation through workshops organized by health centers.
The initiative seeks to respond to the increase in requests for help from users to quit smoking, which are recorded in medical and nursing consultations in Primary Care and which require specialized personnel in health centers to guide and accompany patients in the process of quitting smoking through group therapy workshops.
The course, designed and taught by a group of nurses who are experts in smoking cessation, addresses a training program aimed at Primary Care health personnel, with the aim of providing knowledge and tools that enable them to develop group workshops among smoking citizens and thus increase the opportunities to quit smoking.
On the other hand, this training provides health teams with the appropriate techniques to address tobacco use among the population, as well as skills that enable them to resolve complications arising from the cessation process, such as withdrawal syndrome, address possible side effects of treatment, relapses, excessive weight gain, or certain negative feelings and emotions.
Strategy to quit smoking
The strategy implemented in Primary Care to address the smoker focuses on an effective therapeutic intervention that combines group workshops that accompany the patient during the process, with appropriate pharmacological treatment, thus increasing the possibility of successful smoking cessation.
The health professionals who teach the workshops try to reinforce positive attitudes and decrease negative ones in smokers, enhance self-esteem and strengthen willpower, both individually and as a group. They also know how to prevent and detect relapses in follow-up sessions and strengthen self-control strategies, therapeutic adherence, and reinforce patients' vigilance in the face of possible risk situations, at least during the first year.
376 people in 13 workshops
The Primary Care Nursing teams of Lanzarote developed, throughout 2024, a total of ten smoking cessation workshops in the health centers of Titerroy, Teguise, Tías and Playa Blanca. Nearly 250 smokers participated in these sessions.
It is estimated that around forty percent of the participants manage to quit smoking at least for a while and their satisfaction after the workshop is high. Currently, three workshops are being carried out with the participation of 121 people.
Raise awareness about the harmful effect of vaping
On the other hand, within the same disease prevention strategy and in view of the increase in vaping among the younger population, the Nursing teams have started a program of talks for students of educational centers in Lanzarote in order to warn and raise awareness among young people about the harmful effects and risks involved in the practice of vaping on their health.
Canary Islands Smoker Assistance Program
The Canary Islands Smoker Assistance Program (PAFCAN) is one of the actions developed by the General Directorate of Public Health against smoking. In this case, the objective is to promote the cessation of consumption in current smokers.
This activity is designed to help smokers quit tobacco through SCS professionals and, currently, there are 2,800 included in the PAFCAN and more than 19,000 Canarian smokers who have benefited from it.