Smoke-Free Communities: Successes of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation

“The end goal is to quit, but it is not the main goal. The main goal is to give people education in this space, getting them ready to quit.” — Jay McDonald, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Jay McDonald is a smoking cessation and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) worker at the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. He works with the Aboriginal community to increase awareness of the harms associated with smoking and provides education about programs, resources and products available. The Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation model takes a whole-of-community approach to health with individual, non-judgemental, open-minded conversations. The smoking cessation workers ensure that when their community members are ready to make a quit attempt, they know where to go for evidence-based information and support.