Cork South Central Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer has welcomed the announcement of a new smoking cessation support group in Cork. Coinciding with the HSE’s national QUIT Campaign HSE South’s Health Promotion Department is offering places on a new smoking cessation support group in Cork City commencing on Tuesday, September 13th 2011.
Deputy Buttimer said ‘the HSE’s programmes are helping many people to quit smoking and the new smoking cessation support group will provide even more help for people in and around Cork City. Participation in the support group is free of charge; the support group will be led by a specialist smoking cessation officer in a series of one hour sessions over six weeks. I would encourage anyone seriously thinking about quitting to join the group, having support in the process greatly increases the chances of success.
‘The efforts by the HSE to encourage smokers to kick the habit are very welcomed. Since it was launched in June the Quit Campaign shows that many people are turning to the online resources for help to quit smoking.
‘Quit.ie, which provides supports and guides to help people to quit, has had a large increase in people signing up to its Quitplan, before the QUIT Campaign 481 Quitplans had been signed up, now that number is 2,677. The campaign is also supported by ‘You can QUIT’ Facebook page and the National Smoker’s Quitline which has had a 300% increase in calls since June.
‘According to the Office of Tobacco Control the HSE South Administrative Area has the highest smoking rate of the entire country at 24.5%. It is important that we communicate the effects of smoking and provide support for those wanting to quit, the new smoking cessations support group will assist these efforts to reduce the numbers smoking. Anybody interested in joining the support group should contact the HSE South’s Health Promotion Department, places on the group can be booked by telephoning 021 4921641’