This information is a short overview of Quit’s brief advice model.
People who smoke generally use the health system more than people who do not smoke. For many people, experiencing an episode of ill-health provides great motivation to make a quit attempt. However, many health practitioners find it difficult to prioritise smoking cessation amongst other competing health needs.
In recognition of the challenges and opportunities of providing smoking cessation support in a clinical setting, the cessation model favoured by Cancer Council Australia is simple, quick and effective.
Brief Advice
Smoking cessation support is best provided by health professionals in the form of brief advice. In this model, health professionals encourage patients/clients to use a combination of two best-practice treatments:
- Multi-session behavioural intervention (Quitline telephone support).
- Stop smoking medications (including nicotine replacement therapy).
The brief advice model is used to motivate people to quit smoking and direct them to the right treatment over the course of a short conversation; it does not expect health professionals to deliver time-intensive multi-session interventions.
Ask, Advise and Help
The brief advice model has been designed to be delivered by all health professionals in as little as 3 minutes in just 3 short steps:
1. Ask all patients/clients about their smoking status and document answers in their medical records.
The questions include: “Do you smoke?”, “How do you feel about your smoking at the moment?” and “How much money do you think you spend on the smokes?”.
2. Advise all patients/clients in a tailored and relevant way that the best thing they can do for their health is to quit, and describe the best way to go about quitting using the following examples.
“Tobacco is expensive. Maybe we should think about how you can reduce and quit smoking so that you can save some money.”
“It seems that you’re out of breath a lot recently. Smoking is known to affect people’s breathing. The best thing you can do today for your breathing is to quit smoking.”
3. Help patients/clients by referring them for a multi-session behavioural intervention (Quitline) and prescribing stop smoking medications (or facilitating access to stop smoking medications) such as nicotine replacement therapy.
“That’s fantastic that you’ve made a decision to quit smoking. I’m going to prescribe you some nicotine replacement therapy to help you manage the cravings you might get. After that, let’s make you a referral for the Quitline, they will support you to make a plan to give up smoking.”
This model of care is appropriate in all areas of the health system and can be used by any health professional.
This short video demonstrates the power that conversations, led by health professionals, can have to influence a patient’s decision to quit smoking.
Brief advice is appropriate in all areas of the health system and can be used by any health professional.
Further reading
- Kotz D, Brown J, West R. ‘Real-world’ effectiveness of smoking cessation treatments: a population study. Addiction. 2014;109(3):491-499. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12429
- Stead L., Bergson G., Lancaster T. Physician advice for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2008; (2). doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000165.pub4
- Alfred Health. Start the Conversation. http://starttheconversation.org.au/
The stories on this site are about real patients and clinicians. They share their experiences about the life-changing conversations that resulted in people quitting smoking.
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