Program helps users kick the smoking habit

A team of Kimberley smoke-busters has been established to help Aboriginal people kick the habit.

The Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services’ Tackling Indigenous Smoking program was launched in Broome last week to coincide with World No Tobacco Day.

The 13-person team, embedded in Aboriginal Medical Services in Broome, Derby, Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing, will provide support to Aboriginal people to become smoke-free through individual and family-based case management, education programs and other training initiatives.

The program has been funded by the Federal Department of Health and will run until June 2018.

To celebrate the launch of the Kimberley TIS program, KAMS and community health partners hosted a barbecue event at Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Services.

KAMS Tackling Indigenous Smoking manager Emma Carlin said tobacco-related deaths accounted for about 20 per cent of deaths among the Aboriginal population.

“Smoking is the most preventable cause of death for Aboriginal people across Australia and we know that is heightened in the Kimberley,” she said.

“When we look at Aboriginal smoking rates, Aboriginal people are smoking at least 2.6 times the national average so we’re looking at a baseline of around 46 per cent of the Aboriginal population smoking.”

Ms Carlin said the new program offered people a multi-pronged approach to receiving assistance in an appropriate way that was responsive to indigenous people’s needs.

Boab Health Services allied health manager Robyn Powell said the launch was an opportunity to highlight the relationship between smoking and chronic disease, such as diabetes.

Cancer Council regional education officer Liz Bakowski said there were 250,000 smokers in WA, and up to 160,000 of them would die due to a smoking-caused disease if they did not quit.

Ms Bakowski said smoking cut smokers’ lives short by 10 years on average, but quitting enabled the body to start repairing itself.

“Our main goal is prevention and early detection,” she said.

“The message we are trying to get out is that now has never been a better time to quit smoking.”