Helping patients quit smoking
To the editor:
Health care professionals — doctors, nurses, mental health counselors, family health practitioners — are often in the best position to give advice on quitting smoking.
Research demonstrates that 50% of smokers who quit successfully did so with support and guidance from their primary health care provider, and Adirondack Health is proud to offer tobacco cessation services.
Keeping up with the latest techniques, medications and resources for quitting can be tough. Thankfully, the state Department of Health is promoting the Talk to Your Patients campaign.
Talk to Your Patients offers powerful tools for tobacco cessation, including effective treatments for nicotine addiction, medications, counseling and more.
We all need to take a proactive role in helping people quit; visit talktoyourpatients.health.ny.gov to learn more. Our friends at the North Country Healthy Heart Network can also connect individuals with local resources for quitting: call 518-891-5855 or email djones@heartnetwork.org to learn more.
Sincerely,
Darcy Beiras, MD, CMO
Adirondack Health
Saranac Lake