Who Is LTPB For?
On most college and university campuses, the absence of smoking prohibitions,
combined with the presence of intense tobacco advertising and supportive
social influences, provide a favourable backdrop for smoking. Furthermore,
the insular nature of campus life and the mobility of the student population
make it difficult to reach students with typical community-based tobacco
control programs and services. However, with increasing numbers of post-secondary
students smoking cigarettes, the need for accessible student-focused programming,
promoted through campus-specific communication channels, is apparent.
LTPB addresses these needs in such a way that the following target audiences
benefit.
Students
The primary target audience for LTPB is post-secondary students who are
at risk of initiating smoking or who already smoke. LTPB assists regular
smokers to reduce their smoking or quit all together, ex-smokers and non-smokers
to stay smoke free, and occasional smokers to avoid becoming regular smokers.
Campus Health Professionals
A secondary target audience includes the health care professionals who
take care of students’ health and well-being while they attend school.
These individuals – many of whom have responsibilities beyond campus – are
reached by LTPB through a train-the trainer approach. Providing medical
professionals with OMA-accredited training in clinical tobacco intervention
helps ensure that students (as well as physicians’ other patients)
are advised to quit smoking. The health care professionals also benefit
by expanding their professional development and continuing medical education.
University/College Administrators
Informing administrators of the value of tobacco control policies assists
them to become advocates for smoke-free campuses. A recent US study concluded
that only 40% of post-secondary institutions had any type of tobacco
control programs, services and polices, but most administrators felt
more should
be done in these areas. LTPB provides education and support to university/college
administrators, and actively endorses tobacco-related policy decisions.
Thus, the peer-led services available through LTPB gain tangible support
from a variety of campus offices and services.
LTPB Student-Staff
The final target audience for LTPB is the student-staff. These students
come from a wide range of disciplines: psychology, education, business,
drama, nursing, humanities, biology, computer sciences, health studies,
math, and so on. These student-staff members of LTPB receive extensive training
around tobacco policies, smoking cessation, industry strategies, cessation
counselling, and tobacco control advocacy. In this way, they become our
future tobacco control researchers, journalists, health professionals and
advocates. For them, LTPB provides an abundance of opportunities to expand
their knowledge and skills in areas related to tobacco control, social marketing,
health communication, brief counselling, computer-assisted technologies,
health research, report writing and public speaking, etc.