Smoking Cessation Services: Early Experiences from Health Action Zones

Abstract

The December 1998 White Paper, Smoking Kills, put forward a wide range of measures on smoking and health. A centralcomponent of the reforms is the provision of new monies to develop smoking cessation services across the country. In thefirst year of implementation, the new resources have been limited to health authorities within Health Action Zones, as partof the government's strategy to target disadvantaged communities where smoking prevalence is particularly high. Alongwith introducing a monitoring system for the new services in HAZs, the Department of Health has commissioned a one yearstudy which aims to look at a range of strategic issues relating to service development. This report presents findings fromthe first five months of this study. Report submitted to the Department of Health, February 200