Health promotion tergets smoking with quit kits

It seems like everywhere you go there are students standing outside smoking cigarettes on campus. But, surprisingly only 30 percent of the students at VCU smoke and 70 percent of them would like to quit, according to VCU’s Office of Health Promotion. A program offered by this office has been working to help students quit smoking with its Smoking Cessation Program, which is in its second year.

Linda Hancock, assistant director of the office of health promotion, started this program. She is available to speak with and will give advice on the best route to quit smoking. She can also provide self-help CD-ROMs, nicotine patches, a video that covers steps for success and the smoking cessation pill Zyban.

Jessica Brown, 22, and Sammer Ballout, 25, are two senior nursing students who play an active role in the Smoking Cessation Program.

The main item of the program is the Quit Kits.

The kits include hard candies, straws, silly putty, gum and fliers with motivational quotes and advice about quitting. Brown said for the last two months they have been spreading the word by “putting up posters, having a table set up in the commons with information for students and contacting the presidents of student organizations on campus.”

Most often students meet with Hancock and she will give them a quit kit, sometimes she might administer medication. Ballout said the pill is $15 a month and the patch is $25 a month. Both can be purchased at the pharmacy located in the VCU Student Health Service office.

While some students can quit cold turkey, programs such as the Smoking Cessation Program, are useful because they provide a strong support system and a team of people who can help you quit smoking. Ballout’s best suggestion for someone trying to quit smoking is to “not spend so much time around people who smoke” and “to avoid those areas where you would smoke.”

Those involved in this program are concerned that students are not taking advantage of this opportunity for them to quit a harmful habit while they can.

“(We) just want students to know that this is free and it’s available to them, and if they graduate it won’t be anymore – it’s good to take advantage of this opportunity,” Brown said.

Many students are making use of the program Ballout said.

“There are about 30 to 40 people a month who come in to get the quit kits.” But, they are trying to get more students out to the Office of Health Promotions to take advantage of these opportunities.

Here are some tools the University Student Health Services offer to help students quit smoking: