Oklahoma Quit Week is Jan. 18-25

Posted on: 1/13/23

Tobacco kills 7,500 Oklahomans every year. To save lives, Jan. 18-25, 2023, has been declared as Quit Week in Oklahoma in an official proclamation signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt. The decree kicks off OK to Quit, a campaign to help people quit using tobacco products. The OK to Quit campaign works to raise awareness of the free resources available to help people quit using all kinds of tobacco products.

OK to Quit is a grassroots social media campaign. Through positive messages posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, tobacco users can not only get access to the resources they need to kick the habit, but they can also receive motivational support. To download the OK to Quit Resource Guide, which includes a social media toolkit, click here.

Ways to celebrate Oklahoma Quit Week:

• Promote Quit Week on your hospital’s social media accounts by creating your own content or following and promoting @oktoquit and other tobacco cessation resources like @stopswithme and @okhelpline.
• Provide cessation support information to employees in breakrooms, newsletters, and other internal avenues of communication.
• Set up an interview with your local radio, newspaper, television media for a provider to talk about tobacco cessation, resources, etc. Contact Kelly Willingham at the Oklahoma Hospital Association for assistance, [email protected], (405) 427-9537.
• Incentivize community members and employees to turn in their tobacco products, set a quit date, sign a tobacco free pledge, or call the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline.
• Update your hospital’s existing tobacco policy and promote the policy to patients and employees during Quit Week. The Hospitals Helping Patients Quit (HHPQ) team has sample policies to make things easy for your organization.
• If you have not yet engaged with the HHPQ initiative at OHA, it is a great time to do so. Email the OHA team at [email protected] to get started or to get additional assistance for Quit Week programming at your hospital.

The OK to Quit task force is a collaboration of professionals at Oklahoma Hospital Association, Norman Regional Health System, SSM Health St. Anthony, OU Health, Comanche County Memorial Hospital, INTEGRIS Health, and Guiding Right. The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) supports OHA’s Hospital Helping Patients Quit and the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline. For more information on the HHPQ initiative, click here. (Kelly Willingham)