LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) – CCMH TSET’s Healthy Living program is partnering with Governor Stitt’s week in Oklahoma, urging all tobacco users to quit.
The director of the program Sandy Foster is 100 percent on board with Governor Stitt’s campaign, and partnering with him to bring awareness about the dangers of tobacco to Oklahomans.
”Anything the Governor can do that’s going to promote those healthy behaviors and help provide those resources and talk about some of those resources that are available to help,” Foster said. “I think it’s just wonderful.”
OK to Quit is a social media platform providing free resources, that many can reach from Instagram, Facebook an Twitter, that not only focuses on quitting the use of cigarette smoking, but also dipping, vaping and e-cigarettes.
Foster said Oklahoma has one of the highest ranking averages of tobacco use in the U.S., Oklahoma high school students smoke at the rate of 9.1 percent, the US average being 4.6 percent, while Oklahoma adults smoke at a rate of 19.1 percent, the U-S average being 15.5 percent.
”Anything we can do to encourage people to break the cycle of addiction to nicotine is going to help us,” Foster said. “Our health outcomes are really poor, we die quicker than some of our other states.”
The Healthy Living program also provides free resources, the top one being that you reach out to your health care provider if you are wanting to quit.
”We are really lucky that we have the Oklahoma tobacco help line,” Foster said. “When you start looking at being top of the nation, our help line is one of the top help line serving Oklahomans.”
TSET is available to anyone in Comanche County that is wanting to take the first step towards quitting.
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