Ha¯painga tops stop smoking services

The Bay of Plenty’s free Stop Smoking Support service Ha¯painga remains top of the country for its successful quit smoking rate.

New Zealand has 16 Stop Smoking Support services.

As part of the Government’s goal of Smokefree Aotearoa 2025, each service is required to record the number of clients who are deemed to have successfully quit smoking, meaning they are ‘smokefree’ four weeks after their set quit date.

“Our smoking cessation practitioners use a carbon monoxide detector, a bit like a breathalyser, at four weeks. Low to nil levels of carbon monoxide shows the person is smokefree,” says Ha¯painga team leader Lizzie Spence.

Latest Ministry of Health results show Bay of Plenty is the top performer across the country with a 75 per cent successful quit smoking rate at four weeks.

Lizzie says the service has been in the top spot for the last nine months.

She says it is great news for the team of five practitioners who support people to quit smoking across the Western and Eastern Bay of Plenty.

“The small team really focuses on treating each client as an individual,” she says.

“Quitting smoking is a real journey. Our team might meet with a client several times before they set a quit date. Building a rapport and trust with them is quite crucial to the successful outcome.”