Teams working together to help people quit smoking

As part of an ongoing collaboration, both teams visited Broadfield Barton, and as a result, three smokers signed up to their dedicated stop smoking service.

Firefighters from Crawley were on hand to support the event, with additional fire prevention messages and advice to those who were not quite ready to quit.

Crews were also able to arrange four home safety visits which support certain members of the community with tailored safety advice to help them reduce the risk of accidental fires at home.

Nicki Peddle, intervention and prevention manager, said: “Working with Smokefree West Sussex is a brilliant way for us as a fire service to further serve the community. We want to ensure all of our residents are as safe and healthy as possible and committing to stopping smoking is a fantastic step towards improving health and reducing the risk of accidental fire in the home.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to Smokefree West Sussex and our Public Health colleague for a successful event; we look forward to continuing this partnership.”

Dr Kate Bailey, Public Health consultant, said; “The best thing a smoker can do for their health and the health of their family is to quit smoking. The harm associated with smoking continues to fall hardest on some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

“Stopping smoking is hard, but free support is available from Stop Smoking Advisors. We have over 200 places in West Sussex offering free smoking support, and accessing this makes you four times more likely to quit, rather than trying to stop smoking alone.”

On the day specialist teams, including Crawley Wellbeing and the children and family centres, offered advice on a range of issues such as children’s activities over the summer, weight management, healthy eating and support for living with a disability or a terminal disease.

The full list of stop smoking services can be found on the wellbeing website: www.westsussexwellbeing.org.uk/smokingservices.

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