Health Canada funds update, new version of A-DES anti-smoking DVD

Contracts were signed Friday (Feb.12) to formalize funding for Alcohol-Drug Education Service to expand one of its most successful programs and create a second, different version aimed at young Aboriginal women.

Health Canada program officers Shirley Thompson and Jill Bowerman visited A-DES’ Port Coquitlam headquarters to complete a contribution agreement that will broaden the audience for “Ever Thought of Quitting?” That fast-paced, nine-minute DVD was produced in 2007 and distributed to colleges across the province. The video features young, post-high school adults talking candidly about why they quit smoking, or wish they could.

The revised version will include a perspective from their younger counterparts – older teens who are struggling with smoking – to be used as an educational tool in BC secondary schools.

In addition, a new, similar DVD program will be created targeting young Aboriginal mothers or mothers-to-be. Collaborating in production will be the Cowichan Tribes’ Ts’ewulhtun Health Centre in Duncan, and other project supporters include the BC Cancer Agency and Vancouver Island Health Authority.

“Tobacco misuse is disproportionately high in Aboriginal communities, and pregnant women who smoke are putting their babies at risk as well as themselves,” said Dr. Jean Fraser, who chairs A-DES’ Board of Directors. “In any case, youth don’t want adults telling them ‘what to do.’ This approach works because there’s no preaching. It’s young people hearing from other youth, peers who have ‘been there, done that’.”