The Stoptober campaign is back for the tenth year running, encouraging smokers to put their health first and attempt a quit in October.
The campaign, which motivates smokers to quit smoking from 1 October to 30 October 2021 is based on research showing that a smoker who is able to stop smoking for 28 days is five times more likely to be able to quit smoking for good.
A new nationwide survey of 2,000 current smokers, has found that 45 per cent have been smoking more since the first lockdown began. Data from the monthly UCL Smoking Toolkit Study also indicates a large increase in smoking among the under-35s since the pandemic. Smoking still remains the leading cause of premature death.
The disruptive impact of the pandemic on smoking patterns makes this year’s Stoptober mass quit attempt more important than ever. Stoptober 2021 offers a range of free quitting tools which include:
- NHS Quit Smoking app
- Facebook messenger bot
- Stoptober Facebook online communities
- Daily emails and SMS
- Online Personal Quit Plan, which includes expert support from Stop Smoking Services and stop smoking aids
This is not a mandatory health campaign topic, but pharmacy teams can choose to get involved in the campaign if they so wish.
Resources for Pharmacy teams
To support the promotion of the Stoptober campaign, resources are available to order and/or download from the Public Health England Campaign Resource Centre which consist of webinar recordings, quit smoking wallet cards, posters, social animations, social media assets, digital screens, web banners and an email signature to raise awareness locally.
For more information go to: www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking