Health Promotion & Chronic Disease Prevention
443-523-1760

Smoking Cessation, Tobacco & Nicotine

Program Highlights:
SCHD smoking cessation program is a 10 week individual counseling session that offers free nicotine replacement therapy to those who attend. Some participants are offered nicotine replacement gum in order to enhance their success.

Program Qualifications: Somerset resident, Employed in Somerset, 18 and over

Schedule and Location: Determined by individual appointment

Mission:
The mission of the Somerset County Health Department is healthy people in healthy communities. This will be accomplished by assessing community health needs and assuring that needed quality health services are available and accessible to the public.

Nicotine Addiction
The prospect of doing without tobacco and going through nicotine withdrawal is certainly one of the most difficult changes that a person can make. That’s because nicotine is more addicting than cocaine or heroine! However, each year cigarettes kill more Americans than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, fires, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined.  Smoking-related diseases claim the lives of 430,700 Americans every year. In addition, an estimated 62,000 coronary heart disease deaths occur annually among nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke, also called ETS or environmental tobacco smoke. In Helena, Montana there was a smoking ban from June to December 2002 that made it illegal to smoke in public places. Heart attack rates dropped 60% during this period. The ban was lifted because of a court challenge, and heart attack rates in Helena have risen again. That’s because ETS raises heart attack risk by rupturing plaque in artery walls, promoting blood clots, and prompting irregular heart rhythms. Through the use of nicotine withdrawal therapy in the form of the patch, smokers can receive the benefit of weaning themselves off nicotine. It is helpful to have group therapy during the difficult period of quitting. The Somerset County Health Department wants to help you in your efforts. In order to receive the free nicotine withdrawal therapy patches the group support sessions must be attended. A signed Dr. order for the withdrawal patches is also needed. Please call Health Promotions to enroll in the program, for more information about smoking cessation, or for any trouble you may be experiencing on this site.  Remember, the life you save is your own. You are worth it!

Chantix Program

Program Contact: Cara Rozaieski
Phone: 443-523-1729

Program Highlights:
A stop smoking program featuring Chantix (vareni8cline), the first new prescription medication approved for smoking cessation in nearly a decade and a 10 week class, both free to participants.

Chantix is specifically designed to reduce the severity of the smoker's craving and the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine, and it has the potential to diminish the sense of satisfaction associated with smoking; thus preventing the cycle of nicotine addiction.

Qualifications:

• at least 18 years of age
• live or work in Somerset County
• commit to attending (and have transportation for) the 10 classes held at the Health Department in Westover on Wednesday nights, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
• be able to travel to Marion Pharmacy in Crisfield once a month to pick up the prescription (3 times over duration of class)
• provide prescription insurance card if they have one of any type so that carrier can be billed (if they don't have one it's okay - client will not be charged even if insurance carrier doesn't cover)
• complete the registration paperwork (includes getting our perscription form completed by their health care provider)
• attend registration appointment - to be scheduled with Cara
• bring the following to registration appointment:

perscription insurance card

list of current medications with dosage and reasons for taking them

list of any allergies