HSE steps up its anti-smoking efforts
The campaign has prompted more than 740,000 attempts by people to kick the habit since it was established in June 2011 and provided support to many thousands of quitters.
Today, the HSE is launching a new Quit support service and Quit website.
A new support team of counsellors will be available either over the phone or by email, through live web chat or via Twitter and Facebook.
The QUIT service also has a new interactive website and an online QUIT plan.
The service is evidence-based and can offer quitters a treatment programme where they will be tracked and supported for 12 months.
A quitter, it emerged, is twice as likely to stop smoking for good if they use the free service from the HSE and twice as likely again if they match the supported with approved quit products or medication.
The QUIT website aims to convert visitors and smokers into committed, signed-up quitters and to help people quit for good.
It has been primarily designed as mobile-first as 67% of quit.ie users visit the site on a mobile device. However, it is responsive so it will display on any type of device.
This year the QUIT campaign launched a number of powerful new advertising messages. One series of advertisements featured Gerry Collins from Greystones in Co Wicklow, who had lung cancer caused by smoking and died from the disease.
There was a large increase in smokers seeking help in quitting since the advertisements had been first aired last January.
His family have kindly allowed the HSE to continue using the advertisements to lead the QUIT campaign in the years ahead.
From now on, the QUIT campaign will use TV and video advertisements on Youtube, RTÉ and TV3 players to encourage people to consider a quit attempt and to show them why they should quit.
Radio and online media will be used to encourage people to contact the HSE’s QUIT team.
