Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Campaign of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur

2019

This is an Entry to the Government Best Practice Recognition Awards

Title

Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Campaign of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur

Organization

LGU-Esperanza, Agusan del Sur

Best practice Focus Area(s)

Leadership, Strategic Planning, and deployment, Customer and Citizen Focus

Year Implemented

2011

Summary

The Sangguniang Bayan of Esperanza enacted the Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance in 2011 to be an Effective and Efficient Municipal-Level Anti-Smoking Campaign in delivering health awareness that will provide appropriate and high-impact campaigns through the sustained and adequately-funded program. This to further strengthen the national laws and regulations such as Republic Act No. 9211, also known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 and issues by other government instrumentalities to fully approach the inhabitants of Esperanza at the grassroots level across the local community. Innovative outlook was undertaken such as promoting tobacco use cessation, preventing tobacco use initiation, and eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke are combined with mass-reach health communication interventions to integrate these strategies into synergistic and multicomponent efforts.

Background and Problem

As expected, many were resistant to these programs especially those individuals who gained the addictive properties of tobacco. Program coordinators have brief knowledge that many smokers struggle with withdrawal and cravings when they quit, but there are ways to deal with these temporary challenges. Smoking is the most preventable and controllable health risk.

Many individuals have questioned whether the public health benefits of large-scale anti-smoking campaigns are justified in light of the potential for exacerbating stigma toward patients diagnosed with diseases related to the use of tobacco products. Although there is strong evidence for the public health benefits of anti-smoking campaigns, there is a growing appreciation for the need to better attend to its unintended consequence. There is an ethical burden for creators of public health campaigns to consider in the development and dissemination of hard-hitting anti-smoking campaigns.

Solution and Impact

Grassroots efforts to curb tobacco use: conduct of activities to organizations both in public and private sectors through (media literacy, advocacy, leadership skills, and basic knowledge of tobacco), peer education, public speaking, youth anti-tobacco “summits”, distribution of anti-tobacco gear (for example, T-shirts, stickers, caps), and policy advocacy.

Health Care Practitioners Interventions: Permanent changes in health behaviors are difficult for many people. Although individuals realize that their current behaviors are not optimal for their health and make efforts to change them, failure to maintain any lasting change in behavior is very common. For example, people are well aware of the health risks posed by cigarette smoking, and individuals who smoke report frequent attempts to change their behavior. However, without the aid of professionals, success rates in these areas are quite low.

Changing smokers’ expectations: In the present study, cognitive-behavioral techniques for modifying cognitions are applied to the task of changing smokers’ expectations about the process of quitting smoking and the outcomes produced by quitting. A program launched in other areas of clinical intervention has demonstrated the effectiveness of techniques to modify people’s thoughts in order to effect change. Cognitive-behavioral interventions for a variety of psychological problems. Structured activities are used in both balanced and optimistic treatment conditions to help participants selectively attend to particular aspects of the quitting experience and its outcomes. Intervention strategies include those that directly target expectations about quitting smoking.

Milestones

Program  Coordinators have undergone adequate training conducted by the Department of Health in relation to Smoking Cessation.

Since the launching of the Anti-Smoking Campaign in this Municipality, The Municipality of Esperanza has gained its reputation as an Awardee of Red Orchid Hall of Fame Awards in 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 by the Department Of Health for establishing a 100% Tobacco-Free Environment throughout the entire municipality.

Although smoking rates have steadily declined over the past few years in this municipality, there is still  a long way to go in eliminating this leading preventable cause of pulmonary ailments in the locality.

One of the innovations made by the Sangguniang Bayan was the Raise of Higher Taxes to stores selling tobacco products through Municipal Ordinance No. 147-2013 or the Revised Revenue Code of Esperanza. A total of 33 Business Establishments have complied with this regulation and paid the regulatory fees and tax for selling Tobacco products. And increasing numbers of BLGUs have adopted the said ordinance.