Stop Smoking Services

Please tell us a little bit about your role at LiveWell Dorset

"I am a Behaviour Change Practitioner for LiveWell Dorset, and my role involves conducting over-the-phone coaching sessions with people who are looking to lose weight, increase physical activity, quit smoking or reduce their alcohol consumption." 

"I use a combination of behaviour change, habit breaking and lifestyle adjustment coaching techniques. So, I really break things down and look at where people are now and where they want to be. We work together to set realistic goals and figure out how to overcome any challenges that they may have when working towards taking those steps forward to healthier living."

How does someone who wants to stop smoking access stop smoking support?

"Anyone who's looking to quit smoking can give us a call or talk to us via our live chat service that we have on our website. Outside of our service, we can also signpost people to some of the pharmacy and GP stop smoke services, support groups, and we can provide them with information and links to resources."

What kind of support options are available to someone who wants to stop smoking?

"For anyone who's looking to quit smoking, we firstly have the coaching sessions, which is what I do. We support people with breaking habits, recognising triggers, and finding the best way to quit smoking. These coaching sessions are also helpful for things like accountability, managing any setbacks and dealing with the eventual quitting of whatever form of nicotine replacement people are on, as they inevitably might want to use a vape but then quit the vape further down the line." 

"We also have a limited number of spaces that we offer for the ‘Alan Carr Easy Way’ seminars, and we can also help people to access face-to-face support from their local pharmacy." 

"We're currently also working on introducing group coaching, but we're not quite there with that just yet."

As well as support options, what kind of treatments are available? 

"There's quite a range, really. We provide Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), which are patches and chewing gum, which people can access by giving us a call. We start people off on patches that is more or less equal in strength to the nicotine that they get from smoking. We then move them down to lower-strength patches and lower-strength chewing gum." 

"We've also recently started offering vouchers for stop smoke medications as well, which are accessible via telephone. We offer vouchers for Varenicline and Cytosine via the Asda online pharmacy. As well as this we also offer vouchers for vapes through our ‘Swap to Stop’ programme and these can be accessed through our website or via the telephone. The vouchers are used through a vape provider called ‘Totally Wicked’, and it’s a bit like the patches; we give out an initial strength and then then lower the strength to help bring people down."

"That’s what we offer at LiveWell Dorset, but there are also other courses of treatment options available from pharmacies, such as inhalators, lozenges, sprays and pouches." 

How does your service address withdrawal symptoms and cravings? 

"This is something that is covered during the coaching sessions. We discuss behaviour change techniques to manage and overcome cravings, and we also recommend other helpful tools and resources. We have a really good tool on our website called the ‘Habit Hacker’ that provides helpful tips and information when someone is struggling with cravings or withdrawal symptoms in the moment. Some forms of nicotine replacement therapy (some of which we provide) are also great for managing cravings. The nicotine chewing gum comes to mind, which is very much designed to give people that quick hit of nicotine when they need it most."

What are some of the health benefits to stopping smoking?

"There's lots of benefits for physical and mental health. People who quit smoking go on to live longer, happier, and healthier lives. Quitting smoking reduces the risk of artery disease, lowers your blood pressure, prevents type 2 diabetes and some cancers. There are some other noticeable benefits as well that come quite early on, like the improved sense of taste and smell."

What is the success rate of your service?

"So, how we define success varies at LiveWell, as it depends on what each individual wants to achieve. Success could mean someone has quit smoking and has moved on to a much less harmful option like vaping. However, it's around about 60% of people who come through the service quit nicotine completely."