The Mississippi State University health education and wellness department is teaming up with the ACT Center for Tobacco Treatment, Education and Research in Jackson to offer a tobacco cessation program for students, staff and faculty. The program and medications are provided free of charge and funded through the University Medical Center.
The ACT Tobacco Free Program combines free counseling and medication to treat nicotine addiction. Those who enroll must attend counseling sessions once a week for six weeks or be charged for the medications used during that time.
In order to take part in the program, participants must first make an appointment at the Longest Student Health Center to meet with a doctor. A physician and tobacco treatment counselor will then meet with each participant to discuss medical history and different options for treatment.
Health and wellness educator and program coordinator JuLeigh Baker said the meetings will decide what form of counseling will take place.
“Participants will decide with their counselor and doctor whether to partake in group counseling sessions or over the phone counseling with the Tobacco Quit Line,” Baker said.
In the counseling sessions, participants will discuss what triggers their need to use tobacco products.
They will also practice healthy prevention techniques and look at various ways to quit without gaining weight.
Baker said along with counseling session compliance, almost every form of tobacco prevention medication will be offered at no cost to participants.
“All standard nicotine replacement medicines, such as gum, lozenges, inhalers and patches, will be offered for no cost,” she said. “We will also provide the medications Zyban and Chantix for free.”
Mississippi Tobacco Quit Line supervisor Karen Barnes said the program will be successful because it combines both medication and counseling.
“Medication and counseling used separately can help a user quit,” Barnes said, “but the use of medication and counseling together is pivotal in quitting permanently.”
Dorrell Wenninger, a senior broadcast meteorology major and three-year smoker, said he believes the program could help him quit for good.
Wenninger has tried to stop smoking numerous times but has not succeeded due to the high cost of smoking cessation products.
“It is more expensive to buy the patches and gum than it is to buy a pack of cigarettes,” he said.
Wenninger said he wants to be involved in the program to improve his well-being.
“Wanting to stop [smoking] has a lot to do with my health and also with my profession,”
Baker said the Oktibbeha County Hospital will also be offering the program for local residents.
On-campus counseling sessions will begin Sept. 22 at the Longest Student Health Center with additional sessions being added every week.
The program currently has no deadline, and it will continue taking participants until further notice.
For more information about the tobacco cessation program, contact Baker or Roger Brooks at 325-2141.