Pacific Peoples Strong Voice On Getting Rid Of Tob

Pacific Peoples Strong Voice On Getting Rid Of Tobacco

Delegates at a national tobacco control conference are to be told about the success of creating Pacific peoples focused solutions to eliminating tobacco.

At the Tobacco-free Aotearoa Conference 2010 Stephanie Erick from Tala Pasifika - the National Pacific Tobacco Control Service will share the achievements of the National Pacific Tobacco Control Strategic Plan since its launch late last year.

“We’ve seen an increase in the Pacific voice on the national stage, including more involvement in discussions around tobacco policy and programme development,” says Ms Erick.

The plan saw a panel representing a range of Pacific ethnicities develop a strategic framework to address tobacco use among Pacific people in New Zealand.

Focus groups were conducted in the Pacific community to refine the framework. The engagement showed there is a high level of support to urgently address tobacco use among Pacific people in New Zealand.

“Another message we got from the Pacific community was that they wanted tobacco ‘elimination’ rather than ‘control’. As a result Tala Pasifika adopted ‘Pacific voice on Tobacco elimination’ as our tagline” says Ms Erick.

Tobacco use is an important issue for Pacific people with a smoking rate of 31 percent compared to around 20 percent for New Zealanders of European background.

Part of the success of the Pacific Tobacco Control Strategic Plan is the cohesiveness of decision makers, the health sector and community populations.

“Raising awareness and profile of a Pacific tobacco group amongst media and providing a coordinated approach has been crucial. We now have Pacific providers using Tala Pasifika to get messages out to the communities and gather their feedback,” said Ms Erick.

Ms Erick cites the recent Tuatua Tika - Pacific Tobacco Control Report as an example of providing information that the Pacific community and providers find very useful.

ENDS

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