Smoking Cessation Program Assessed: Clean

Smoking Cessation Program

Program Assessed: Clean Break Online, an online smoking cessation available online at: http://www.cleanbreak.com. "Clean Break Smokers' Treatment Program is a hospital-based smoking cessation program serving the Twin Cities area since 1983. Founded by ex-smokers Peter & Peggy Holmes, Clean Break has held regular monthly classes at numerous Twin Cities hospitals: United and Children's Hospitals, St. Paul (1986-2002), Fairview Southdale Hospital, Edina, MN (1987-1993), Park Nicollet Clinic, St. Louis Park, MN (1993-2002), and the Virginia Piper Cancer Institute/Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis (2002-2005). The Clean Break Program has also been implemented in many Fortune 500 companies, including 3M, Honeywell, Control Data, National Car Rental, and General Mills" (Clean Break, 2009).

Recognizing the Issue

Program Goal: To help smokers stop smoking, particularly those who have failed to quit smoking using other treatment modalities.

Objective: Introduce a non-traditional approach to smoking cessation to smokers, 70% of whom want to quit smoking (CDC, 2013).

Gaining Entry into the Community

Program Goal: To bring the Clean Break smoking cessation program to people outside of the Twin Cities area.

Objective: Use the internet as a means of delivering the Clean Break smoking cessation program to individuals regardless of location by providing an interactive program for smokers that simulates the benefits of the in-person Clean Break smoking cessation program.

Organizing the People

Program Goal: To reach people on an individual level rather than in a classroom setting.

Objective: Offer comprehensive smoking cessation services in a personal online platform.

Assessing the Community

Program Goal: To target smokers who may face barriers to using other stop-smoking programs.

Objective: Continue to offer TTY (teletype phone) support to deaf/hard of hearing smokers who are using the program.

Determining the Priorities and Setting Goals

Program Goal: Help smokers assess the behaviors that lead them to smoking.

Objective: Use the first three online sessions to help evaluate the individual smoker before attempting to coach them on smoking cessation behavior.

Arriving at a Solution and Selecting Intervention Strategies

Program Goal: To help smokers view smoking cessation as a positive life change, rather than as a deprivation.

Objective: Focus on personal responsibility in the program, emphasizing that the decision whether or not to smoke is a personal choice.

Implementing the Plan

Program Goal: Give participants skills to deal with stressful situations without smoking.

Objective: Send participants into stressful situations knowing that they will trigger the urge to smoke, tell the participants to expect conflict, and provide the tools for dealing with that conflict.

Evaluating the Outcomes of the Plan of Action

Program Goal: To maintain a 35%-45% rate of people who not only stopped smoking, but had not resumed smoking a year after the end of the program, which is the success rate seen in hospitals.

Objective: To attain full participation in follow-up surveys assessing whether or not participants had stopped smoking and were still smoke-free, this can be done during the individual follow-up counseling that is already part of the program.