NSW SmokeCheck Project
The SmokeCheck Project is committed to building and strengthening statewide organisational and workforce capacity to deliver evidence-based brief smoking cessation advice and support to all Aboriginal clients of health services in New South Wales. Its focus is on enabling and supporting all health services (mainstream and community controlled) in NSW to include the brief smoking cessation advice and support into routine service delivery.
The SmokeCheck Phase 2 has four primary focus areas: Focus area 1: Organisational capacity building -redesigning health care systems/environments to support brief intervention practices. Focus area 2: Workforce capacity building - provide Aboriginal Health Worker training in brief smoking cessation intervention. Focus area 3: Smoking cessation for the Indigenous workforce - increase quit attempts of SmokeCheck's Indigenous workforce participants. Focus area 4: The SmokeCheck smoking cessation program for Indigenous pregnant women - investigations for workforce training.
NSW SmokeCheck Phase 1 ran for over two years, from 2006-2008. Funding has been secured for Phase 2, an additional two years from 2009 to 2011.
The Project is run through the School of Public Health, at the University of Sydney and partnerships exist with the funding bodies, NSW Health and the Cancer Institute NSW.
Many elements have contributed to the success of the NSW SmokeCheck Project including: political commitment, community engagement, existing and establishing relationships, a quality evidence-based intervention and culturally specific resources. Other contributing factors include the expertise of the Project Team, which includes health promotion professionals and academics, and Aboriginal leadership and partnerships. The statewide reach attained through the delivery of the SmokeCheck workshops has been substantial, and the dedicated resources made available for the delivery of the workshops around the State have been important contributing factors.
There was initial lack of interest from the workforce members who were smokers despite project efforts to promote the workshop as not directed at their own smoking status. This was corrected by persistent reassurance and additional contact. Attendance figures were affected by some workers (who stated they would attend and registered) in small services not being able to be released from their work on the day and therefore the project missed out on some of the project's key target group members. The workshops that targeted service managers did not generate the desired level of interest and engagement as a result of conflicting work priorities and lack of resources and relief. The project in phase 1 did not attempt to address organisational barriers and enablers to implementation of the brief intervention into routine practices in the workshops owing to time constraints of the workshop program and its primary focus on health worker training.
Findings for Phase 1 will be announced by the NSW Minister of Health in July/August 2009. The Final Report with findings will be published and disseminated through the NSW Health website.
The evaluation of the SmokeCheck training program in Phase 1 was conducted in two stages. The first was process evaluation; the second was impact evaluation using a quasi-experimental design. The process evaluation assessed the reach, quality, relevance and acceptability of the training to participants, using a semi-structured questionnaire that was completed at the end of each of the workshops. The impact evaluation of the SmokeCheck training program assessed the effects of the training program on the capacity of the AHWs and other health professionals to implement the SmokeCheck brief intervention with Aboriginal clients. Although smoking prevalence among workshop participants was measured before and after participation in the training, this outcome was not the primary focus of the evaluation. The findings from the evaluation study will be released by the Minister in July/Aug 09. The evaluation framework for Phase 2 activities is currently being designed and finalised.
Resources are available free of charge through the NSW Better Health Resource Centre, for anyone who has participated in the SmokeCheck workshops. The SmokeCheck project is currently developing its web site and visitors to the web site will be provided with information about all smokecheck activities including training, workshop schedules and resources.
Bev Carroll NSW SmokeCheck Project School of Public Health, University of Sydney Edward Ford Building A27, University of Sydney NSW 2006 E: smokecheck@health.usyd.edu.au P: (02) 9036 7112
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