Mission Statement

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The MMSA Antitobacco Peer Education Programme has a number of primary objectives that it would like to reach with its program, get to know all of this by clicking on read more.

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Objectives

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1.    Provide a standard, up to date, evidence-based and effective way for the antitobacco team to deliver its message by creating and providing:

a.    Peer Education Training (1) to outreach activists and ensure their knowledge and practice in anti-tobacco knowledge and communication skills

b.    A resource pack for all activists in order to develop the skills of:

a.    independence research

b.    compiling layman information from research and statistical papers

2.    Encourage non-medical students to join public health activism in order to:

a.    Enhance communication between different faculties and future professionals (2)

b.    Share and benefit from knowledge of professionals coming from different sectors

c.    raise awareness that even civil society can be a public health activist (3)

3.    Mainly target young adolescents before they encounter smoking in order to decrease the chance of adopting the smoking habit (4,5)

4.    Promote and create awareness of the:

a.    MMSA NPET Program (npet.mmsa.org.mt)

b.    HELP 2.0 campaign by:

a.    Giving the URL (help-eu.com) during the session

b.    Giving HELP promotional material such as the shopping bag, etc…

c.    WHO FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) by showing that a  smoke-free environment is a target aim of the worldas a whole (6)

d.    National (Maltese) Health Promotion services such as Quitline and Smoke Cessation clinic (7)

5.    Reduce the paternalistic approach by presenting facts in an unbiased way in order to:

a.    not labelling smokers as ‘bad’ people

b.    offer alternatives to smoking (5)

c.    promote the notion of free choice (4)

d.    specifically target young people by considering that they:

a.    do not like to be told what to do

b.    want to feel ‘cool’

c.    feel immortal (e.g. feel it difficult to perceive they would die of cancer in 60 years time)

d.    overestimate their ability to quit in the future (5)

e.    are vulnerable for any type of addiction (1)

f.    like to be involved – empowerment (2)

g.    public health material has to be created appropriately to attract them

6.    Offer an adjunct to formal public health education by offering peer-led educational methods of non-formal education (NFE) - a participative and ‘casual’ way on how to present information on a smoke-free lifestyle

7.    Give a 360-degree view of the harms of tobacco by mentioning facts other than the physical effects of smokingin a way to broaden the target audience perspective. Examples are:

a.    The manipulation of youth by tobacco industries (5)

b.    Environmental Hazards (5)

c.    Law enforcement (3) and the role of youth in enforcement (1)

d.    The subtle expense of smoking (5)

e.    Aesthetic effects of smoking

f.     Psychosocial impact

g.    Correlation between socioeconomical groups and smoking prevalence

h.    Myths about tobacco consumption

8.    Highlight the right of having a smokefree environment by:

a.    Mentioning the hazard of passive smoking (3)

b.    Encouraging enforcement of the local smoking ban in enclosed public spaces

9.    Be a tool of empowerment by encouraging the audience to be themselves public health activists by listing facts and mentioning EU and local health promotion to their peers and family by particularly:

a.    addressing school management and policy makers (1)

b.    themselves giving feedback to the HELP campaign and MMSA

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Target Audience

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Students (8) between the age of 12-16 yrs (in secondary and post-secondary institutions) – no gender preference, since:

• according to the 1996 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey Report, Malta:

o   has the 2nd highest prevalence (10%) of 13-year olds who smoke at least once a week amongst the 27 EU member states

o   this 10% goes up to 21.5% when looking at 15-year olds who adopt the same trend – a percentage which is above the 19% EU average

o   there is no significant gender difference (p<0.05) in both ages (13 and 15 years)

• behaviour patterns relating to health and concepts of health are established during adolescence (1)

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Expected Results

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The expected results of the project directly reflect the objectives of the project.

In general the project intends to target national (Maltese) challenges which hinder a more holistic way of delivering public health awareness by :

1.    Involving different stakeholders and improving collaboration between them. Those mainly include: medical and non-medical university students, local health department, HELP and EU organisations, secondary and post-secondary school management and students (the target audience)

2.    Promoting the idea that anti-smoking is a prosperous lifestyle in which all Europe and the world is delving into

3.    Empowering the adolescent student giving him non-formal and participative education and by encouraging him/her to share his opinion and to himself be either a direct or indirect public health activist

4.    Stating evidence-based facts without taboos and bias

5.    Emphasising the importance on having a smoke free environment by enforcing the public smoking ban law

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References

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1.    Davis, R.M., Wakefield, M., Amos, Youth Forum Jeunesse (2008). Policy paper on the health and well being of young people: adatped by the General Assembly Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 13-15 November, 2008

2.    ENHPS (2004). Promoting Health in Second Level School in Europe: A Practical Guide. Retrieved July 2, 2009, from

www.euro.who.int/document/e75013.pdf

3.    Vasquez, J. (2008). Human rights & health: Persons exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke. Pan American Health Organization.

4.    Youth Forum Jeunesse (2008). Policy paper on the health and well being of young people: adatped by the General Assembly Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 13-15 November, 2008

5.    Davis, R.M., Wakefield, M., Amos, A. & Gupta (2007). The Hitchhikers’ Guide to Tobacco Control: A Global Assessment of Harms, Remedies, and Controversies. Annu.Rev. Public Health (28): 171-94

6.    World Health Organisation (2003). WHO framework convention on tobacco control. Retrieved July, 2, 2009, from

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2003/9241591013.pdf

7.    Malta Health Promotion Department website. Retrieved July 2, 2009, from

http://www.sahha.gov.mt/pages.aspx?page=49

8.    WHO Regional Office for Europe (2009). A snapshot of the health of young people in Europe: A report prepared for the European Commission conference on Youth Health, Brussels, Belgium, 9-10 July 2009