Dubbo-based Marathon Health and partners have launched a new campaign prompted by national data showing almost 41 per cent of Indigenous Australians over the age of 15 smoke daily.
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Marathon Health, Cancer Institute NSW and Quitline NSW are running Let’s Quit Together in Western NSW with support from local Aboriginal land councils and headspace Dubbo.
They are acting on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2016 report that reveals the smoking rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults aged 16 years and over is 37.3 per cent as compared with 15.6 per cent for the general population.
Further research shows 40.7 per cent of Indigenous people over the age of 15 smoke daily, the partners report.
Marathon Health’s manager of health and well-being, Shellie Burgess, said the campaign focused on “awareness, education, group and individual care and public engagement”.
“We’re really excited to bring this campaign to the regional and remote communities of NSW,” she said. “Not only are we aiming to reduce overall smoking rates, but we will also be concentrating our efforts towards education.
“We plan to ensure that Aboriginal health workers in these communities are trained in smoking cessation so regional communities will always be able to access these services.”
Ms Burgess welcomed support from local Aboriginal land councils in “targeted communities”. “This partnership has allowed us to engage with more people in harder-to-reach, rural and remote communities and provided the opportunity to train Aboriginal health workers and community engagement workers while also working with schools to tackle this as a preventative activity,” she said.
Let’s Quit Together will involve headspace Dubbo boosting awareness of the “dangers” of smoking with young people.
“If we offer support and information to young people, we have a better chance of preventing this habit continuing into adulthood,” headspace Dubbo’s Rachel Thomas said.
