If you are tired of smoking and want to stop, help is at hand.
And statistics show a smoker is four times more likely to quit with help than on their own.
The Canadian Mental Health Association and Interior Health are partnering to offer Stop Smoking; Start Living, a smoking cessation program over the course of six to eight weeks.
A 45-information session will be held at noon Thursday, Oct. 13 in education room 5 at Shuswap Lake General Hospital.
Following that meeting, the program will get underway, led by Merel van Oeveren, a social worker at the hospital and Dianna Churchill, CMHA certified smoking cessation trainer.
The program is open to all community members and will feature free nicotine replacement products such as patches or gum.
For more information or to register for the introductory meeting, call Dianna at 250-832-8477 ext 202, or email her at dianna.churchill@cmha.bc.ca.
For those who are unable or choose not to attend a course, the provincial government also offers assistance to help people butt out.
Offered by the Ministry of Health, the B.C. Smoking Cessation Program offers low-income British Columbians on the Medical Services Program (MSP) coverage for one prescription smoking cessation drug for a single continuous course of treatment or, a supply of one nicotine replacement therapy product (gum or patch) at no charge for a single continuous course of treatment.
For more information, visit www.health.gov.bc.ca/pharmacare/stop-smoking.