Background: Tobacco control literature suggests reducing youth smoking rates requires a comprehensive approach across a range of settings including the education system, health services and community groups. The majority of interventions targeting young people are school based. This has resulted in a gap with programs that can be used by health professionals to target young people in out-of-school settings. A new program ‘Skilled Smoke-Out,' has been developed to address this gap and extend the work currently undertaken in schools.

Strategy: ‘Skilled Smoke-Out' will provide health professionals working with young people, with the knowledge and skills to integrate smoking prevention and cessation into their current practice and programs. Health professionals are given the opportunity to undertake an interactive training Workshop and receive a corresponding Resource Kit. Participants will be equipped with methods to routinely ask young people about their tobacco consumption, give advice on how to quit smoking and ensure appropriate follow-up is undertaken. This will enable participants to empower young people in out-of-school settings to make decisions conducive to a smoke-free lifestyle. The Resource Kit will contain quick reference sheets, a CD-ROM with worksheet templates and a comprehensive facilitator manual with activities to address youth tobacco smoking. Resources will be designed to cater for varying literacy levels and delivery modes.

Conclusion: This presentation will look at the objectives and processes for the development of ‘Skilled Smoke-Out.' It will examine the content of the package and provide preliminary results from piloted trials.