Description of the program
On 31st May, 2010, also known as the World No Tobacco Day, the Ministry of Health or MOH in Dubai formed an alliance with Dubai Healthcare City or DHCC to launch an important campaign, called the No Tobacco Campaign, in order to stop people from smoking in Dubai. The most important program of this campaign is the Quit and Win campaign, which is a unique idea, launched by the DHCC and is in the form of an open contest (George, 2010).
Program goal and objective
The goal of the campaign is to provide the smokers in Dubai with an opportunity through which they can quit any form of smoking with the help of numerous support mechanisms. The campaign reaches out to almost every community throughout Dubai and the UAE by the means of their wide range of programs. The campaign aims at helping young and old smokers to completely cease their smoking habits and also tells the non-smokers how to keep away from smoking. This campaign aims at making the participants realize the danger they can be in due to their smoking habits and that over 50% of them can even succumb to numerous diseases if they do not let go of their smoking habits (Snell, 2010). Awareness needs to be raised since now even the young children have started to smoke and their numbers are steadily increasing.
The main object of the program is relief of smoking addiction among the people of Dubai or Smoking Cessation. Continuous smoking habits can lead to a number of health related problems among the smokers. Consumption of tobacco in any form has been found to be the major source of premature death and is also responsible for almost fifty thousand deaths a year. Smoking sometimes also leads to lung cancer, which is the 2nd highest reason for premature deaths in Dubai (Heymann, 2008). Although smoking is completely preventable, its cessation can only be achieved if smokers realize its growing threat and can refrain themselves from becoming a victim to the deadly lure of smoking. It has been projected that almost 20% of males and 3% of females in Dubai are smokers of which 25% of males within the age group of 13 and 15 and 42% around the age of 18 are at present completely addicted to smoking. Such alarming smoking rates pose a serious health problem in Dubai (Snell, 2010).
Steps and phases of program planning and evaluation
The main tactic employed by the initiators of the No Tobacco Campaign is the Quit and Win campaign. Those participants who can or are interested in permanently quitting their smoking habits can enroll in the Quit and Win program. Participants need to register into the No Tobacco Campaign in order to be eligible for the Quit and Win program. “They will then have to take a biomedical test after which the successful quitters will be chosen and conclude the program making them eligible to enter into a nationwide draw and win prizes” (George, 2010). They participants are given a month to quit smoking and if they are able to do so then they can enter into the draw and one of them will emerge as winner. In those 30 days the smokers are regularly monitored and through a biomedical test the nicotine content of their body is measured. Although the benchmark for the No Tobacco Campaign had been fixed at 24%, the initiators of the campaign claim that they want to achieve a 50% reduction in the number of people who can and want to quit smoking. The No Tobacco Campaign does not favor nicotine patches and thus, the participants have to give up their addiction without using them (Heymann, 2008).
To convince the smokers that consumption of tobacco in any form can be seriously injurious to their health the No Tobacco Campaign team spread out all over Dubai and also the UAE rolling out the initial phase of their campaigning between 21st May and 30th May. During this time the entire team visited labor camps, offices, shopping malls, medical centers, hospitals and college clusters all over Dubai and talked with the smokers about the dangers they might face due to their smoking habits. This was mainly done to gain the support of the common people to initiate the campaign in Dubai. However, the Quit and Win program is not for all since only those people are eligible for the draw who have been smoking for a year or more and have stayed clean for a month after participating in the campaign (Griez, 2009).
The No Tobacco Campaign and Quit and Win program helps the smokers to get rid of their smoking habits over a time period of 4 weeks and also sees to it that they stay healthy and without any tobacco even after that. However, being a smoker or a non-smoker is completely a personal choice. Thus, even though the campaign may only be for only a month victory, in the form of cessation of smoking, may take more time than that. During the first month of the campaign measures are taken to change the smoking habits of the participants and also their attitude towards consumption of tobacco and mainly smoking (George, 2010).
Stakeholders, their role and inclusion in the evaluation process
The addicted are the main stakeholders in this program. However, it should be noted that they are the only obstacle in such a campaign. The stakeholders are the participants themselves who may sometimes falter not being able to take the pressure and go back to their smoking habits. Since it takes a lot of commitment and personal strength to break out of such an addiction, the mind of the participants sometimes act as their greatest obstacle. But since the smokers have the help and support of the doctors, counselors and their family members they have a huge opportunity in overcoming their obstacle. Further, former smokers also visit and talk to them inspiring them to quit smoking and take the life changing decision that many of them have not yet made. The counseling sessions, various medicinal programs, inspirational talks by doctors and former smokers have been seen to have worked for other organizations on similar campaigns as well (George, 2010).
Other stakeholders include various organizations. The No Tobacco Campaign and Quit and Win program has been launched as a joint collaboration between Ministry of Health or MOH and Dubai Healthcare City or DHCC. The campaign has been executed and conceived by Exhealth and has been sponsored by the Green Crescent Insurance Company. MOH has always favored encouraging and preventive services by developing programs and strategies specific to different sects of our society. “They have also focused on the promotion of healthy lifestyles by imparting health education among the public” (Griez, 2009). Some of their notable programs include National Immunization Program and Non-communicable Disease Programs consisting of obesity, cardiovascular, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
DHCC’s medical cluster comprises of pharmaceutical sector, diagnostic centers, transplantation centers, outpatient and day-care clinics, rehabilitation centers, hospitals and equipment suppliers sector. ExHealth aims at contributing meaningfully towards the healthcare sector of Dubai. It offers services and consultancy in a number of areas including Healthcare Marketing, Healthcare Event, Medical Tourism Consultancy, Healthcare Media, Healthcare PR, Healthcare project and Healthcare Publication. For Green Crescent the health of the public comes first. They are a privately controlled, publicly held health insurance company that provides quality health care to its customers through their technological and product innovations. Their central mission is to educate the people in Dubai about prevention of diseases and their effective management so that healthcare becomes cost effective (Heymann, 2008).
Tracking of data related to the program
Tracking the data related to the program was not an easy task. One of the most significant methods was the use of questionnaire. From the questionnaire based investigate, the research gained adequate information regarding the organization’s present adoption status of the program. The questionnaire based research section followed a questionnaire survey in the designated organization or sector. The survey was directed to understand the profile of the respondents, the benefit of the program for them and the services which they are presently participating (George, 2010). The next section of the questionnaire was to discuss the benefits that the sector has gained from the usage of the program. The perceived benefits of program usage have to be captured through the questionnaire. Then the questionnaire discussed the barriers which the sector faced in adopting the smoking cessation and other physical and mental difficulties related to the quit smoking movement.
References
George, T. (2010). A Tobacco Reconceptualization in Psychiatry: Toward the Development of Tobacco-Free Psychiatric Facilities. The American Journal on Addictions, 19(4), 293-311.
Griez, E. (2009). Negative affectivity in smokers applying to smoking cessation clinics: a case–control study. Depression and Anxiety, 26(9), 824-830.
Heymann, P. (2008). Living the policy process. NY: Oxford University Press US.
Snell, C. (2010). Peddling poison: the tobacco industry and kids. London: Greenwood Publishing Group.