Flaxmere College
Background
Hawke’s Bay is an area with high youth smoking rates, especially among Māori and females. Finding effective ways to reduce youth smoking is always challenging. In 2008, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (DHB) approached Flaxmere College to see if it would take part in a pilot to look at ways to help schools deal with smoking, and to introduce a ‘smokefree culture’.
The college was chosen because it was a Health Promoting School and had participated in the Year 10 ASH survey, and because of high youth smoking rates in the area. It was keen to be involved, liking in particular the holistic approach of building processes to support a smokefree culture, rather than a one-off, short term intervention.
Planning
Together, Flaxmere College and Hawke’s Bay DHB looked at the school’s current smokefree practices and built upon these, integrating smokefree through the whole school culture and providing a supportive rather than a punative approach to students’ smoking.
The project aimed to:
• reduce the number of pupils who started to smoke
• decrease pupil ‘standdowns’ for smoking, focusing instead on offering quit smoking help and support
• increase the quit smoking support available at the school
• undertake an evaluation so learnings could be used with other schools.
Implementation
A ‘lead’ smokefree contact from Flaxmere College was identified, who worked closely with DHB staff and students. A checklist of the school’s existing smokefree practices and initiatives was then developed, which also identified any gaps.
A working group – Stomp out Smoking - was established, made up of Flaxmere College staff and students, a public health nurse, a volunteer, and Hawke’s Bay DHB staff. The purpose of the group was to:
• develop a smokefree policy
• develop an action plan, that included a range of educational and health promotion initiatives
• monitor and develop a sustainable smokefree project.
Actions to date include:
• training a public health nurse to be a Quit Cards provider, so staff and students can be given quit smoking help and support and nicotine replacement therapy. Training a staff member means quit help can be provided from within the school, without the need to bring in people from outside
• the provision of free nicotine replacement therapy to Flaxmere College students and staff
• the development of a smokefree policy, which was endorsed by the board of trustees
• providing a range of smokefree messages to support the project and to keep the school up-to-date on tobacco control initiatives. These include smokefree stalls at careers’ day, posters in the canteen, and smokefree resources in the library
• promotion of smokefree messages in school media – such as in the newsletter, and prize giving booklet
• smokefree presentations and education sessions. These include presentations at staff meetings and smokefree education sessions on nicotine addition and NRT from the DHB’s smokefree liaison nurse. There are also plans to build tobacco control information into curriculum activities
• a presentation from the Quit Group CEO about the benefits of quitting, and the help and support available.
Evaluation
The project is being externally evaluated by the Eastern Institute of Technology, with support from the Health Sponsorship Council.
To date, baseline data from staff and student surveys has been collated, and focus groups have been held.
What has worked well?
• The school has recognised that a supportive approach to being smokefree is more effective than a disciplinary approach.
• After such a positive pilot programme, the DHB is now working in partnership with Hawke’s Bay Primary Health Organisation to roll out the same approach at Hukarere Girls’ College and the teen parent unit.
What could have worked better?
The working group – Stomp out Smoking – has a relatively low profile within the school community. Good pieces of work have been undertaken – such as developing a supportive smokefree policy and an action plan to identify a range of smokefree initiatives – but need to be promoted more widely.
More information
You can find out more about the pilot programme by contacting Karen Hicks, Health Promotion Advisor at Hawke’s DHB: karen.hicks@hawkesbaydhb.govt.nz or 06 834 1815 extn. 4323.