The two-day Training Workshop on Comprehensive Smoking Cessation Intervention 2024 organised by the Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office (TACO) of the Department of Health (DH) was concluded today (September 13). A total of 150 healthcare professionals from Hong Kong, the Mainland and Macao attended the training workshop, which aimed at enhancing healthcare professionals' skills in providing smoking cessation services.
To strengthen knowledge exchanges on tobacco control and share local experiences in cessation service provision among local, Mainland and Macao healthcare professionals, TACO extended invitations to healthcare professionals from the Mainland and Macao to participate in this year's workshop. Among the 150 healthcare professionals participating in the workshop, 33 were from the Mainland and Macao, and 23 of them were recommended by the Health Commission of Guangdong Province.
The training content this year spanned smoking cessation counselling, prevention of relapse, treatment of tobacco dependence, motivational interviewing in smoking cessation, case sharing of smoking cessation, and pharmacotherapy, providing healthcare professionals with knowledge and skills in different smoking cessation interventions, which prepared them to help smokers quit smoking by various channels.
The DH has become a regional hub for supporting training in smoking cessation treatment and services after it was designated by the World Health Organization to establish the Collaborating Centre for Smoking Cessation and Treatment of Tobacco Dependence in April 2012. In addition to the Annual Training Programme on Tobacco Control for tobacco control workers in the Western Pacific region, TACO also regularly holds smoking cessation treatment training courses to enhance the capability of local healthcare professionals to provide smoking cessation support.
TACO will further strengthen collaboration and communication with the Mainland in tobacco control, and it is committed to providing continued support in cessation training and assistance, as well as jointly promoting the construction of a smoke-free Greater Bay Area.
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