Tackling Indigenous Smoking Team Targets Schools
Apunipima’s Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) are set to visit Herberton’s Mount St Bernard College to share messages about the harms of smoking and passive smoking with Year 7 students, many of whom come from Cape York.
The team will make three visits to the College in October and November to deliver information and hold resource making sessions with the students.
Health Promotion Team Leader Nina Nichols said the collaboration with the College was an exciting one.
‘A key target audience for the TIS program are the 10–24 year olds, which are the group most likely to take up smoking. Many young people in Cape York leave their community to attend boarding school so it makes sense for us to engage with local schools to promote tackling smoking messages and to provide appropriate quit advice and support when required.’
TIS Health Worker Josh Mene, who is leading the Mount St Bernard College program, will focus on supporting students to come up with good ways of passing on messages to others about the dangers of smoking.
‘Our aim for this program with Mount Saint Bernard College is to develop an educational resource with the students. This will be used as part of our service delivery to engage the communities of Cape York, as well as raise awareness and increase knowledge in regards to the harms of smoking and passive smoking.’
‘We will also be promoting the national ‘Don’t Make Smokes Your Story’ campaign and our soon to be launched Facebook page. We hope that as we promote our key messages from our Tackling Smoking program it influences young people to make healthier lifestyle choices.’
This will be the first time Apunipima has collaborated with the College and it is hoped, that if successful, the relationship will continue. Mount St Bernard College Pastoral Care Officer Jenny Rossiter said she welcomed the relationship with Apunipima.
‘We are looking forward to collaborating with Apunipima and the support they can offer our students. These young people are in our care for forty weeks of the year and we welcome the education provided by the team around the dangers of smoking and advice with quitting strategies.’
‘We hope to build on the positive relationships formed, and have ongoing programs over the coming years. Having Apunipima come into the College helps students make the connection between the Health Service and their home communities. In this way, youth will feel more comfortable engaging with Apunipima Cape York Health Council when they are at home.’