It’s hard to get teenagers to participate in tobacco cessation programs. Shoot – it’s hard to get a hold of them for a phone conversation! It’s recently been pointed out that tobacco cessation programs for teens need to be revamped in an effort to increase participation. Teenagers tend to feel pretty invincible and most don’t think of smoking as a long term addiction, or as having much impact on their health. In light of this, I thought I’d hit up my 16 yr old sister, Hilary, for the 4-1-1 (information), on what would make teenagers more likely to participate in a tobacco cessation program.

By the way, it took exactly one MySpace message, two cell phone calls and a text message to make this happen.

The first suggestion that Hilary had was to increase teenage smoking-related health awareness – and get people out of class to do it. Apparently incentive is important! She described a couple of programs that she thought would be good models for this. The first was club at her high school that allowed students to miss a regularly scheduled class to attend a meeting that focused on learning about teenage pregnancy prevention. Another program she mentioned, aimed at breaking down social barriers, entailed the whole school participating in a day-long event of speakers, activities and an information fair. She strongly emphasized the importance of getting her peers physically involved via demonstrations, contests with prizes, activities, etc.

When Hilary and I talked about teenage participation in coaching programs, she made the interesting comment that a friend’s word or encouragement (i.e. peer pressure) means a lot more than the opinion of “some adult you don’t really know” (i.e. Quit Coach). To this end, she thought a program that included both smoking and non-smoking teens would get teens talking more. According to her, most teenagers would be a lot more comfortable instant messaging a coach than talking on the phone. Here at Free & Clear we have discussion forums for adult participants. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine some kind of live chat or internet-based program for our youth participants someday.

When I asked Hilary about the possibility of a fine or ticket being a deterrent to smoke (discussed @ http://www.pr-inside.com/fining-teens-who-smoke-is-a-r677710.htm), she said that she didn’t think the threat of a fine would help much. “Like with drinking,” she said “everybody will be pretty sure there’s a way to get around it without getting caught.” Darn that teen-age invincibility!

Hilary…if you read this, thanks for the ideas and fresh perspective!