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New service launches to help young vapers quit

Young vapers looking to quit the habit can seek help through a new stop vaping service being launched today.

Left to right: Aaron Davies, Alex Hawkins-Drew, Katie Hill and Sukey Harrisson.
Left to right: Aaron Davies, Alex Hawkins-Drew, Katie Hill and Sukey Harrisson. / Guernsey Press/Peter Frankland

Following the ban on the sale of vapes to under-18s that came into effect this month, Public Health has worked in collaboration with Action for Children to launch QuitVape: the Young People’s Stop Vaping Service.

A survey of local young people from secondary school age last year found that most people who vaped wanted to stop or would consider it in the future. The service developed from there.

‘Importantly, we want young people to engage themselves.

‘We don’t want referrals from teachers because we really need that motivation to come from them.

‘Parents can contact us and we’re happy to help their young person self-refer but this shouldn’t be a punitive service,’ said Alex Hawkins-Drew, associate director of Public Health.

The service is running initially for six months, with three tiers of support aimed at under-18s.

Tier one is a self-help booklet, also available online, that users can fill out and record their progress.

Tier two is a face-to-face service offering vape-tapering advice with extended behavioural support, commissioned to the charity Action for Children.

‘Unfortunately we have a lot of young people with a lot of nicotine in their system who need support now that vaping’s no longer accessible to them,’ said Aaron Davies, service manager of Action for Children.

‘I think this is an incredible project and we’re really excited.

‘It has come together really quickly – as a third tier sector, this is the quickest I’ve seen government move in a long time, and we’re really confident it will be taken seriously and will be adopted by schools.’

The charity provides all the education in schools around vaping, and will work with school nurses if issues escalate.

The third tier, provided by the school nursing team, involves immediate vaping cessation and nicotine replacement therapy for those who are more severely addicted to nicotine.

‘It’s ground-breaking really,’ said Katie Hill, school nurse team leader.

‘We are one of the only school nursing teams that are doing this.

‘Some young people are worried to access school nursing in case the information will get shared with teaching staff, but we don’t, this is not a safeguarding issue.

‘We’ve been supporting people to quit vaping for over three years but there hasn’t been anything specifically geared up for it.

‘Now this is in the public domain as something they’re allowed to access and seen as positive.

‘It gives young people so much more choice over their own health.’

Mrs Hill said the nicotine replacement service added a new level of support.

‘Something that curbs the craving while they’re getting used to the behavioural side makes this a more robust service. You can be as motivated as anything but if you’re addicted it’s really difficult.’

Mrs Hawkins-Drew said Public Health was not expecting the majority of young people to require the third tier but wanted to provide additional support.

The first few weeks of the service will focus on raising awareness. Face-to-face meetings will start in July.

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