If you’re a cigarette smoker, and you feel you’ve tried just about everything to try to quit, you may want to be part of a province-wide support program that’s available in Durham.
The STOP (Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients) Program is offering eligible Durham participants five weeks of cost-free nicotine replacement therapy and information on how to help them quit smoking. Durham’s health department says the therapy has been shown to effectively help people ditch the habit by easing withdrawal symptoms.
Although there are several kinds of nicotine replacement therapies, Durham Health says the program provides the patch, which, on average, costs a person $30-$35 per week. According to this cost calculator, this is a fraction of the weekly cost of smoking a $16 pack of 25 cigarettes a day: $112.
Ontario’s smoking rate dropped to 17.4 per cent in 2014 from 24.5 per cent in 2000, meaning 408,257 fewer smokers, but Durham Health says it wants to help every smoker butt out.
The region is hosting a STOP workshop in Whitby on May 28. For more information on the program and to find out if you are eligible to participate in the workshop, call Durham Health Connection Line at 905-666-6241 or 1-800-841-2729.
Since the start of the CAMH-led program in 2005, STOP has provided free smoking-cessation medication and counselling to support more than 100,000 Ontarians who wanted to quit smoking. It’s funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as part of its Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy.
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