For Family & Friends
Support and Resources for Friends & Family
If you have a friend or family member who is quitting smoking, or you are helping someone to quit, you might benefit from seeking out additional support. The following is a list of resources that offer information and guidance for friends and family:
Helping a Loved One Live Smoke Free: What Works, What Won't, and Why
By Barbara White Melin
Smokers and Quitters: What Smoking Means To People And How They Manage To Quit (Paperback)
By Erli Gronberg and Katherine Srb.
Help Your Smoker Quit: A Radically Happy Strategy for Nonsmoking Parents, Kids, Spouses, and Friends
By Jack Gebhardt
Counseling Parents to Quit Smoking: An Article from Pediatric Nursing
By Sharon L. Sheahan and Teresa A. Free
Helping Women Quit Smoking: Results of a Community Intervention Program
By Roger H. Secker-Walker
A number of agencies and organizations provide information and materials where you can find help for someone who is quitting smoking. The quit smoking resources in this site include a comprehensive list of government and non-profit guides for quitting smoking. Use the additional ideas below to get started in gathering support:
- State and local health agencies often have information about community programs to help people quit smoking.
- The local or county government section in the phone book (blue pages) has current phone numbers for health agencies.
- Information to help people quit smoking is also available through community hospitals
- The yellow pages (under "drug abuse and addiction"), public libraries, health insurance companies, health fairs, bookstores, and community quitlines.
- Several federal agencies and national organizations provide information about how to quit smoking.
Smoking Fact
When you quit smoking, your risk of stroke decreases steadily. Former smokers have the same stroke risk as nonsmokers after 5 to 15 years.
