Quit SA - Smoke-free policies

Smoke-free policies

There are three key areas that organisations can make change to ensure they provide a supportive environment to address tobacco use and promote quitting, these are:

1. Policy

2. Systems

3. Support

Policy

Clear policy for an organisation on tobacco use is critical. Policy allows an organisation to spell out the rationale and principles behind their approach to addressing tobacco use. Policies reinforce the need for changes in social attitudes and gives clear direction for an organisation on tobacco use. A good policy sets expectations and will guide service delivery, and provide supporting practice and procedural guidelines for all staff.

A comprehensive policy should outline:

Rationale
Smoke free environments – including building & grounds, vehicles, home visiting services
Support available to clients
Support available to staff
Expectations of staff
Compliance/monitoring measures being adopted
Systems to record interventions – asking ALL clients about smoking

Systems

Adopting a uniform system across your organisation to prompt a conversation about smoking with ALL clients will increase the success you have in supporting people to quit. Something as simple as changing how you ask about smoking status on your case notes can have a big impact on how much support is provided to clients. Implementing a system across your whole organisation acts as a prompt for all staff to ask clients about smoking, allows support to be provided more consistently to clients, and allows your service to collect data about the interventions being conducted.

Support

Organisations need to decide how they can support both clients and staff to quit. Support for clients can be achieved by asking everyone about smoking and implementing consistent intervention strategies across your organisation.

Support for staff can be approached in a variety of ways:

Staff health and wellbeing programs that provide quit advice and referral to Quitline, often with access to subsidised or free nicotine replacement therapies or other pharmacotherapy
Organisation / workplace quit courses or support groups
Provide ongoing training and education for staff to ensure intervention skills are maintained and practised

Example Policies & Other Resources

Addressing Smoking in Community Service Organisations: A Policy Toolkit. Produced by Cancer Council NSW Tackling Tobacco project

Smoke free policies in Local Government – Resource Kit produced in NSW

Information on smoke free workplaces, hospitals, schools plus more