UAE launches counseling and support for smokers seeking to quit

The guide provides health practitioners with a road map for treating tobacco addiction using recognized cessation strategies, psychological support, and counseling. This program emphasizes the need of giving healthcare professionals tools to control every stage of addiction so enabling people to overcome the negative consequences of tobacco use.

The handbook targets three main groups: people ready to give up, those reluctant to stop, and former smokers at danger of recurrence. It describes exact actions for controlling every stage of tobacco dependence. With a whole strategy to quitting, behavioral therapy and drugs permitted by health authorities take front stage.

One of the main points of the guide is its measurement of nicotine dependency using sophisticated international testing. These tests employ technology to measure a smoker's risk of picking back up tobacco usage and determine their preparedness to stop, This customized method guarantees that every person gets particular help depending on their particular requirements and situation.

Priority within the program is follow-up treatment. Working together, healthcare professionals and experts carry out preventative health campaigns that not only help with tobacco addiction but also encourage better living. This all-encompassing strategy seeks to lower risk of relapse and maintain long-term abstinence.

Good Counselling Strategies

The guide notes three types of counseling that have shown success in reducing tobacco dependence:

Practical counselling is skill development and problem-solving meant to enable patients to manage triggers and urges.
Within-treatment Establishing a supportive treatment atmosphere that builds trust and motivates patients to make stopping commitments will help them.
Further treatment Offering outside resources like support networks or community organizations helps to show constant encouragement.
The process depends much on healthcare personnel. Their responsibilities include counseling patients to stop, writing prescriptions for quitting drugs, and linking people to other options, Emphasizing regular follow-ups can help to guarantee ongoing support and stop relapses.

Health Effects

Based on concerning figures from the 2018 National Health Survey, the advisory notes that 2.5% of women and over 16% of males in the UAE smoke, With estimates attributing smoking to half of the Middle East's chronic illness burden, it is a major contributor to several of the ailments afflicting the area.

At least 69 recognized carcinogens among over 7,000 compounds make up tobacco smoke. Lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, ischemic heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, and stroke are among the spectrum of health problems these toxic compounds cause. With about eight million deaths yearly, tobacco smoking ranks globally as the main avoidable cause of disease and early death, Of these, more than 1.2 million deaths are ascribed to secondhand smoke exposure; over seven million deaths are due by direct tobacco usage.

The advice underlines that tobacco kills up to half of its users and issues a warning against any kind of tobacco usage as none is safe. This emphasizes the great importance of thorough campaigns to reduce tobacco consumption and safeguard public health.

Withdrawal Symptoms

Understanding that quitting might be seriously hampered by withdrawal symptoms, the book provides doable techniques to keep people on target. It advises the "four Ds" method:

Slow, deep breathing helps one control urges and lower stress.
Maintaining hydration helps one to eliminate toxins and reduce withdrawal symptoms.
Engaging in activities that occupy the mind and body helps one to be distracted.
Reminding oneself that urges are fleeting usually lasting only five to ten minutes.
These techniques give people means to negotiate the difficulties of quitting and keep their will to live a tobacco-free life.

Assistant Undersecretary of the Public Health Sector, Dr. Hussain Al Rand, underlined the importance of the guide in the larger objective of the ministry to lower tobacco consumption in the UAE, Through cooperation with both local and international health authorities, Mohap seeks to solve public health issues caused by smoking and enhance national tobacco consumption statistics.

Together with helping people on their path to quit and advocating better living all throughout the UAE, the guide is a part of a bigger endeavor to shield the society from the negative consequences of tobacco. By means of these programmes, the ministry aims to reduce the health load resulting from smoking and promote a culture of well-being.