The HSE Tobacco Free Ireland Team hosted the National Tobacco Free Campus (TFC) Bursary awards ceremony in Dublin on 1st June. The bursary was awarded to staff in acknowledgement of their work in supporting the implementation and quality improvement of the HSE TFC Policy in each of their sites. For the first time in the history of the bursary, the sites engaged crossed a wide variety of settings from acute to primary care/disability and mental health services etc. The numbers applying for the bursary have increased year on year, with this year (the 3rd bursary process) exceeding all other years with 108 sites applying.
Tobacco Free Campus (TFC) policy implementation requires a whole-organisation approach and the buy-in of all management, staff and service users. The Tobacco Free Ireland programme (TFIP) is totally committed to supporting all services nationally to achieve the highest level of policy implementation and has consistently employed new and creative supportive strategies. Health Promotion and Improvement (HP&I) staff have a specific role in promoting healthy public policies and specifically in promoting and supporting the implementation of tobacco free health services. These staff were integral to the delivery and expansion of sites who engaged in tobacco control quality improvement within their services.
The HSE introduced the TFC policy in 2013 and the Bursary awards was first introduced in 2018. The primary purpose of the awards was to support sites who are in the process of implementing their policy or wish to improve on its implementation. As part of this work, sites are asked to complete a self-audit of their site set against the Global Network for Tobacco Free Healthcare (GNTH) standards as well as encouraging them to look at innovative ways of supporting the policy implementation.
Through receipt of the bursary, previous award winners have been able to develop a fantastic array of resources, artwork, shared spaces and infrastructure to support the creation of new alternatives to smoking areas both internally and externally in addition to creating innovative ways of communicating the message that HSE campuses are smoke and vape free. For example, new garden spaces with outdoor drafts games have been created to help alleviate boredom, encourage movement and physical activity in inpatient mental health facilities and reclaim garden spaces as welcoming clean air spaces for all to enjoy.
Speaking at the ceremony, Bernard Gloster, HSE CEO said: “There is huge opportunity for health services to tackle the problem. We know implementation of smoke free health services continues to present challenges and we continue to appeal to the public, those in our care and to our staff to support us and to comply with the request not to smoke on health service grounds. We deliver stop smoking services across our hospitals and in the community, and in recent years we have put a focus on helping our staff who smoke to quit.”
The committee were delighted that Dr Philip Crowley accepted the invitation to present awards to each of the participants. Thanks to all involved, the event was a great success and we look forward to future ceremonies.
