For centuries, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people (hereafter referred to as Indigenous people, recognizing diversity) have related to each other, using collective knowledge to solve complex problems.
Through the iSISTAQUIT (Indigenous Smokers Support Implementation to Help Quit) program, we are training and empowering health providers to start a conversation with pregnant women who smoke to encourage them to quit and empowering Indigenous women for them to connect with health services that are trained. and willing to help.
All health professionals understand the importance of quitting smoking, especially during pregnancy. Quitting smoking during pregnancy not only improves child health outcomes, such as birth weight and gestational age, but also improves the health and well-being of the woman, her family, and the entire community. Most Indigenous pregnant women want to quit smoking, but may not have enough culturally appropriate guidance, resources and support from health providers.
It’s not that health care providers aren’t motivated to provide smoking cessation assistance. The problem is that Australian GPs and other health workers who provide care to pregnant women are often ill-equipped to provide smoking cessation care to pregnant Indigenous mothers. In a study of 378 GPs and obstetricians, more than 75% agreed that training would help them provide better care for smoking cessation during pregnancy. Barriers to helping pregnant Indigenous women to quit smoking include not receiving training in culturally appropriate methods of providing smoking cessation counselling, lack of adequate resources, low knowledge and confidence in prescribing or recommending replacement therapy of nicotine and the lack of time to participate in internal therapy. deep conversation about smoking and quitting.
We, through iSISTAQUIT, are trying to change that.
The iSISTAQUIT project
iSISTAQUIT is an evidence-based smoking cessation training program currently funded by the Australian Department of Health, as part of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking Program. It has been developed together over the past 7 years through several rounds of co-design and community testing. In its current form, it is a short, only 4-hour, online, module-based training that can be completed from a computer or handheld device such as a tablet or mobile phone.
Upon completion of training, the student may opt for continuing professional development points and/or request resources such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Carbon Monoxide Breath Monitor, Informational Brochures, Treatment Manual, Worksheets patient, My Journey leaflet and posters to display. your practice or health service. The treatment manual provides detailed guidance on how to approach smoking cessation in pregnant Indigenous women, including the ABCD approach (asking, brief advice, support to stop smoking and discussing the psychosocial context).
iSISTAQUIT also offers ABCD templates for medical practice software to guide consultation and record important patient information in the electronic medical record. Resources such as patient flipcharts (with images) make the counseling process more systematic and intuitive. The My Journey booklet is a co-designed resource (with women and the community) that can be given to women to map and plan their quitting journey. In addition to easy-to-understand smoking cessation information, the booklet includes distraction methods (eg, coloring activities) and embedded augmented reality videos (QR codes that can be scanned to play videos).
We are currently implementing iSISTAQUIT in over 30 Aboriginal and Traditional health services in Australia.
#smokefreesistahood
iSISTAQUIT recently started a #smokefreesistahood social media campaign to engage women, communities and healthcare providers on social media platforms to engage with iSISTAQUIT.
This campaign aims to create a community of support for Indigenous women who are, or are considering, embarking on a journey of abandonment. An important feature of this social media campaign is a series of videos highlighting the barriers pregnant women face in accessing smoking cessation care within the healthcare system. Indigenous communities, particularly young women, are avid users of social media and the #smokefreesistahood campaign is likely to generate community-wide engagement and awareness of smoking during pregnancy.
The campaign’s main slogan, “Change starts with a chat,” calls on health providers to start a smoking thread with pregnant Indigenous women.
Expansion of iSISTAQUIT: national
The iSISTAQUIT Scale-up Project received $1.8 million in funding in 2021 to expand the implementation of iSISTAQUIT training to 100 health services, hospitals, GP practices, pharmacies, dental practices and other delivery systems health in Australia.
This phase will take the learnings from our previous research and try to find the best way to implement the training in different health contexts in Australia. We will work closely with health providers, managers, policy makers and community members to build a training and implementation model that empowers health providers and health services to better care for pregnant Indigenous women.
Dr Ratika Kumar is a researcher at Southern Cross University.
Ms Rebecca Hyland (Kamilaroi) is the Senior Project Manager for iSISTAQUIT at Southern Cross University.
Professor Gillian Gould is Professor of Health Equity at Southern Cross University.
The iSISTAQUIT project is currently funded by the Department of Health with new funding from the GACD/NHMRC.
Statements or opinions expressed in this article reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy of the AMA, the MJA, or InSight+ unless otherwise noted.
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