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Project details

Start date: 15-08-2022
Status: Afgerond
Duration: 6 maanden
Country: Nederland
Coordinator: Estella Posthuma

Together for a Smoke-Free Nijmegen

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the Netherlands. People with a low socioeconomic position (SEP) often make much less use of policies and measures to quit smoking. They have more difficulty quitting smoking and experience greater health consequences from smoking. For example, they are more likely to suffer from a chronic disease such as COPD as a result of smoking. People are caught in a vicious cycle of chronic problems, chronic stress, and unhealthy behavior/addictions, and find it difficult to break free. Additionally, anti-smoking campaigns and smoking cessation assistance for this group often have less success. A more person-centered approach was needed: a self-help group for quitting smoking established in co-creation with the participants of this group and local healthcare professionals.

Situation

In the Lindenholt district of Nijmegen, a Self-Help Group started in April 2022 to quit smoking. This self-help group is attended by residents of the neighborhood who want to quit smoking. Everyone is welcome in this group, even if you still smoke. The only condition is that you do not smoke on the premises before, during, and immediately after the meeting. Smoking includes e-cigarettes and other forms of tobacco that can be consumed. The group is led by an experienced expert. Nowadays, this role of ‘chairperson’ rotates among the participants themselves. The experienced expert designed this self-help group in collaboration with professionals. The content and format are not yet finalized and will be further developed with other participants of the self-help group. The client (Pharos and the municipality of Nijmegen) noticed that the self-help group was not yet well established. This means that the group does not yet have a fixed place within an organization. The provisional fixed location is in a community center for 1 year funded by the subsidy. Establishment requires a fixed location where the self-help group is not in doubt every year that they may not be allowed to remain at their location. The participants of the support group also had this idea, despite the subsidy being arranged “in the background,” the participants felt it was important that they could remain in a fixed location and continue to organize their meetings. Furthermore, no consideration had been given to smoking cessation providers in the neighborhood, what do they think? How can we reduce the number of smokers in the neighborhood?

PAR Design

PAR-goal

To co-create action plans with the PAO community so that the self-help group becomes more known in the neighborhood and Nijmegen and that the group is regularly attended by a stable group of people and new people also join. In addition, the content of the meetings will be shaped together with these participants of the self-help group. The main goal is ultimately to reduce the number of smokers in the Lindenholt district by actively promoting the self-help group.

Outcome

The group has formulated various action plans in co-creation with each other. Some examples include:

  • Interview with the Brug (news newspaper)
  • 2 participants contacted Smoking
  • Cessation coaches at Sinefuma and Smoke-Free & Fitter
  • Flyering in the neighborhood
  • Idea to invite a guest speaker to the group
  • Main goal: increase the group to a number of 8-12 people. This by promoting among healthcare providers in Nijmegen. Conversations have been initiated by the participants with health centers in Nijmegen
  • Theater performance
    o The group went to a theater performance called the sToppers! Here they received tools on how to use their knowledge to help others. This was also an opportunity for them to talk about their group and distribute flyers. This expanded their network with another large coach group for smoking cessation participants.

Additionally, the group also went to Amsterdam Noord, where there was already a slightly longer-established self-help group for quitting smoking. They shared ideas and exchanged knowledge. The group also wanted to use media; they came up with the idea to approach a local television channel (RN7), with the help of a communication advisor from Pharos.

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