Rebecca Wosomo and Toni Fell will hit the road this year to help decrease the life-threatening dangers of tobacco smoking and vaping amongst our First Nations communities. Photo: TCHHS (Facebook).
Need to quit? Here are the faces at Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) to help.
Program manager Toni Fell and program officer Rebecca Wosomo have been appointed to champion the Torres and Cape Smoking and Vaping Cessation Project for the next 18 months.
The project aims to reduce the amount of smoking and vaping amongst First Nations communities across the Torres and Cape regions.
Smoking remains a leading risk factor in TCHHS communities and among First Nations people statewide.
And that includes vapes, which contain nicotine to harm brain development.
TCHHS says vapes also carry chemicals found in nail polish remover, weed killer, cleaning products and bug spray. These include acrolein, formaldehyde and propylene glycol.
Toni and Rebecca will be visiting each primary healthcare centre and working with clinical and non-clinical staff, community services, clients and patients to achieve better health outcomes for our communities.
According to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, among First Nations people tobacco smoking is:
- the most preventable cause of ill health and early death
- responsible for about one in five deaths
- directly responsible for one-third of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
