Looking to clear the air and create a more healthy community by providing County smokers a new tool to quit, The Aroostook Medical Center and Aroostook County Action Program’s Healthy Aroostook, with the help of Pfizer Inc., took advantage of a day set aside to encourage folks to kick the habit for 24 hours, to launch a new smoking cessation program.
Beat-the-Pack, a free, four-week quit program, was publicly announced today at a press conference at the Aroostook Centre Mall, where activities were centered around marking The County’s own version of the Great American Smokeout — known as the Great Aroostook Stompout. Collaborators are hoping to change an unenviable statistic which shows the region has the highest percentage of smokers in Maine by helping extend one day of going “cold turkey” to a lifetime without cigarettes.
“We realized both a community need and our own internal need at TAMC for a smoking cessation program,” said Dawn Poitras, TAMC manager of rehabilitation services and a member of the TAMC Total Health Team. “So, we partnered with Healthy Aroostook and Pfizer Inc. to offer a comprehensive approach to quitting smoking. There is a clear need to help smokers quit. Tobacco use can cause lung and other cancers, heart and lung disease, and is responsible for one in three cancer deaths and one in five deaths from all causes.”
The need for a smoking cessation program in The County is evident in the comparatively high rate of smokers in the region compared to the nation and state. Across the United States, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death, yet 42 million Americans still smoke cigarettes — which is just under one in every five adults. In Maine, the number of smokers statewide stands at 18 percent. Aroostook County has the highest rate of smokers age 18 and above at 26 percent.
“This is something we have to work to turn around,” said Carol Bell, ACAP manager and lead of the Healthy Aroostook Program. “It appears we have reached a point where most understand that smoking is dangerous and certainly has a negative impact on your health. In fact, 68 percent of tobacco users, in a 2012 behavioral risk survey conducted by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, reported they would like to quit smoking or transition to using other tobacco products. We need to recommit our efforts to helping that majority of smokers kick the habit.”
That same survey, according to Bell, showed that 46 percent of high school students indicated having been exposed to secondhand smoke within a seven-day period of being asked the question by surveyors. “So the impact is not just on the individual who lights up,” added Bell.
The announcement of the new Beat-the-Pack program was immediately followed by a public information session detailing the new initiative for members of the community. A second introductory session was held later in the afternoon at TAMC.
Beat-the-Pack will provide the tools and education necessary for smokers to quit once and for all. The sessions, which will begin early in the New Year on Jan. 7, will also teach participants about the risks of smoking, the reasons why it is so hard to quit, and how an individual’s health can be improved when they quit, as well as the real costs of smoking.
The program will be offered at no cost to participants and will consist of four weekly meetings on Wednesday evenings between 6 and 7 p.m. Sessions will be held in the conference center on the second floor of the East Wing Building on the campus of TAMC’s A.R. Gould Memorial Hospital on Academy Street in Presque Isle. In addition to the sessions, support will be provided to help reinforce the change and encourage participants to stay smoke free.
“The Beat-the-Pack program is a supportive, interactive and individualized group that works on turning negatives in people’s lives to positives and to help them find a newfound freedom from smoking. It is a four-week program that focuses on the positive messages associated with quitting, including what can be gained from a successful quit attempt,” said Sarah Caron of TAMC, one of the individuals who will lead the sessions. “We are going to provide tools to boost confidence that will support people in their quit plans. The Beat-the-Pack program covers the reasons to quit, coping with the urge to smoke, long-term benefits of quitting cigarette smoking and most importantly how to stay smoke free.”
A new series of classes will begin on the first Wednesday of each month for the first four months of 2015 (Jan. 7, Feb. 4, March 4, and April 1). Individuals who would like more information on the program are encouraged to email Carol Bell at Healthy Aroostook at cbell@acap-me.org.
TAMC, Healthy Aroostook and ACAP organized the announcement as part of a daylong series of events locally to mark this year’s Great American Smokeout. The Great Aroostook Stompout is The County’s take on the day set aside to encourage smokers to quit for the day. The twist is, rather than just inviting those who use tobacco products to give them up, everyone is asked to consider refraining from one unhealthy habit for 24 hours.
In addition to the lead partners, the Aroostook Centre Mall, Northern Maine Community College, the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and Pfizer Inc. came on board in support of this year’s effort.
Participants in the day’s activity were asked to complete the Great Aroostook Stompout pledge sheet, which featured the person’s name and the unhealthy habit he or she will give up for the day. The pledge sheets submitted by community members and TAMC employees are on display in the Food Court of the Aroostook Centre Mall. Pledge sheets completed by NMCC students, faculty and staff will be hung in the lobby area of the new Rodney Smith Wellness Center. UMPI student, faculty and staff pledge sheets will be hung in the Campus Center.
All community members who submitted a pledge card were entered into a drawing to win a $50 Aroostook Centre Mall gift certificate and several $25 gift certificates to the new TAMC gift shop.