CMHA-SF Breathing Easy Smoking Cessation Program

The risks of smoking are well documented. It is the single most preventable cause of death in the world, but statistics show that tobacco-related diseases kill one out of two tobacco users. This issue is highly relevant for people with mental illness, who are about twice as likely to smoke as the general public. Those living with schizophrenia are three to four times as likely to smoke.

CMHA-SF developed the Breathing Easy Smoking Cessation Program, an education and support program, to help people with a psychiatric diagnosis face the extra challenges of quitting smoking. CMHA-SF received seed funding from Health Canada between 2003 and 2006, which allowed us to develop this unique and comprehensive program.

The program consists of a 12 week smoking cessation group.

The elements that support participants to stop smoking are three fold:

• The Cognitive Behavioural techniques learned weekly in the participants’ guide book
• The group support for each other
• The tobacco replacement therapy used to prevent craving while the participants learned new skills and behaviours to quit smoking.

Fraser Health bought the usage rights to this program and an 8 week version of the program is now run through Fraser Health Clubhouses.

CMHA-SF continues to provide materials for those who wish to run Smoking cessation groups which consists of:

• The 12 week interactive participant support manual
• A facilitators guide for those that want to run groups
• Facilitator training and telephone support

Since the program’s inception, we have provided over 2,400 participant manuals to groups across Canada.

For further information contact us at 604-516-8080 or email simonfraser@cmha.bc.ca