As part of Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care and its goal of having the lowest smoking rate in Canada, the provincial government is increasing access to smoking cessation aids to help smokers quit the habit. Forty-one community health centres across Ontario are now able to provide over-the-counter nicotine cessation aids and counseling, at no cost.
In collaboration with community, workplace and health care partners, this initiative will also focus on:
- Reducing smoking among workers in the industrial and service sectors by creating partnerships with selected workplaces, and in conjunction with 11 public health units. Activities include training peer educators to deliver brief counseling interventions, distributing smoking cessation aids to individuals and counseling through telephone services.
- Supporting patients who are in hospital to quit smoking by providing both brief and intensive counseling. It will also improve care for patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and lung cancer.
These new initiatives are in addition to other supports for people who smoke in Ontario, including free nicotine replacement therapy at 122 Family Health Teams across Ontario and increased access to smoking cessation aids, which can now be prescribed by pharmacists.
You can read the media release, “Ontario Helping More Smokers Quit” on the Ontario government website.