Essentials of Replication
Developed by campus health professionals, students, and researchers, Leave The Pack Behind is an evidence-based, comprehensive, age-tailored tobacco control initiative that is offered exclusively on college and university campuses. LTPB seamlessly integrates cessation, protection, and prevention activities in order to: promote smoking cessation among occasional and regular smokers; protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke; and prevent students from starting to smoke. It is monitored through well-developed program evaluation strategies to ensure its continued effectiveness.
Since its inception on just six post-secondary campuses in Ontario, LTPB has been replicated on many dozens of geographically-diverse colleges and universities including large urban campuses, small town universities, commuter schools, residential schools, high profile institutions and smaller colleges. Schools in Canada’s eastern provinces and northern territories have implemented the program in whole or in part, as have schools in Europe and United States.
Post-secondary institutions wishing to implement Leave The Pack Behind on their campus are encouraged to take these steps.
Step 1
Conduct a preparatory campus assessment to review the institution’s resources, and ensure that all aspects of comprehensive tobacco control can be satisfactorily administered. Such an assessment should appraise:
- levels of support from health services, administration, and student governments. (Buy-in from at least some health/administrative staff appears to be essential to successful replication of Leave The Pack Behind.)
- availability of office space, computer and telephone equipment, storage space, operating funds, etc.
- capacity for monitoring and evaluating intervention processes and outcomes.
Step 2
Determine how best to implement programming on your campus. Evidence from the scientific literature and LTPB’s own evaluation suggests that effective, comprehensive tobacco control on campus is most successful when these three components are in place:
- programs and services to support smoking cessation and prevent smoking initiation and escalation.
- social marketing campaign(s) to promote desired outcomes and raise awareness of programs, services and policies that support those outcomes.
- evaluation and knowledge translation to ensure continued effectiveness of programs, services, and communications.
BUT, it is certainly possible to introduce a comprehensive tobacco control initiative like Leave The Pack Behind incrementally, starting with just clinic services, or just social marketing campaigns, and then expanding from there. (The preparatory campus assessment may offer direction regarding which course to take).
At the most basic level of programming, an institution might choose to focus exclusively on the campus health clinic, with educational posters and brochures displayed in the clinic, and health professionals providing smoking cessation supports and resources to client who smoke. Rudimentary evaluation (such as number of posters displayed and clients treated) might be done.
More comprehensive programming can be implemented by introducing a student-team (paid or volunteer). Depending on capacity, the team can mount a time-limited, concentrated campaign by putting up posters, submitting free campus newspaper and radio ads, hosting a display table at a special event, and/or engaging in other time-limited activities.
If there is capacity for even more intensive peer-to-peer programming, the student-team can be established to do regular outreach (such as hosting weekly display tables and “walk-abouts”; maintaining an active Facebook page; refreshing posters, banners, and ads around campus; making presentations; referring smokers to health professionals for cessation support; running a contest; and so on). The student-team can advocate for more progressive tobacco control policies related to smoking areas, sale of tobacco and health plan coverage of cessation medication.
Remember: The student-team will need to be monitored and guided. Administrative work such as hiring and paying team members may also be required. Consider whether the capacity to do so exists.
Step 3
Contact Leave The Pack Behind to find out what support is available. With more than a decade of experience, Leave The Pack Behind has tremendous expertise in developing, implementing and evaluating campus-based tobacco control programs, services and policies.
Leave The Pack Behind sells many of its proven resources on a strictly cost-recovery basis.
Leave The Pack Behind also has a broad selection of generic and one-to-one training materials and services that post-secondary institutions can access in order to:
- explore procedures and structures that maximize delivery of smoking cessation services in the campus health clinic.
- enhance health and medical professionals’ knowledge and skills related to tobacco treatment for young adults.
- develop efficient referrals of smokers to the campus clinic and/or to community services.
- optimize peer-to-peer programming by recruiting and maintaining energetic, productive student teams.
- evaluate process and outcome indicators of effective successful tobacco control programming.
- advocate for progressive tobacco control policies on campus.
To find out more, please contact us:
P 905 688 5550 ext. 4992
E LTPBoffice@brocku.ca
