Smokers part of the solution

Media release

Thursday 4 November 2010

Smokers part of the solution as Maori fight tobacco industry

According to Maori health service provider Te Hotu Manawa Maori (THMM), smokers need to be included in the strategies being developed to combat the tobacco industry’s impact on Maori.

“We cannot ignore the fact that many Maori health workers are smokers,” THMM’s National Tobacco Control Advisor Warren Moetara told the Tobacco-free Aotearoa Conference in Auckland today.

“Research tells us that 80% of smokers wish they had never started smoking. So we need to offer Maori health workers who smoke the opportunity to quit. They can also help us reach other Maori smokers with our quitting message.

“In fact we believe health workers who smoke are more likely to empathise with the clients we work with. One of the things we stress in our programmes is that we cannot afford to judge Maori who smoke. Our role is to offer them unconditional support to quit.”

Te Hotu Manawa Maori has developed a kaupapa Maori programme called Awhi Mai Awhi Atu. The programme gives Maori health workers a whole range of disciplines and tools to support Maori smokers to quit.

“We know that Maori are less likely, than other groups of people, to see health professionals like doctors. So Awhi Mai Awhi Atu aims to equip other workers, who have contact with Maori clients, with the tools to help our people quit.

“Workers are trained through a combination of workshops and e-learning. At the end of this training they become Quit Card Providers. This means they know how to support smokers to quit and they are able to provide Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) directly to them.”

THMM has also developed traditional tools as part of a holistic support package.

“We worked with carver Bernard Makoare to make porotiti [a leaf-shaped taonga] which we give to clients. The porotiti is worn around the neck and makes a unique noise when it is spun. We encourage clients to put the porotiti on at the same time as their nicotine patch; and this has a calming effect on them.

“High school students helped us develop this concept and they absolutely love the porotiti. In fact we can’t produce enough of them.”

Warren Moetara says that THMM will continue to recruit Maori smokers into their work-force of quit coaches.

“For a long time the sector was judgemental about Maori smokers and excluded them from the smoke-free work-force. Rather than continuing this hypocrisy we want to include these Maori smokers as key players in our battle against the tobacco industry.”

Ends

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