Learning Objectives: Recognize the historical, cultural and social significance of tobacco to be able to frame health education efforts in tobacco dependent communities.
Abstract:
Problem/Objective: Quitting tobacco is difficult for anyone who is addicted. For addicted individuals immersed in a culture that highly values tobacco and its production as a way of life, it is even more so. FirstHealth of the Carolinas (FirstHealth) provides tobacco cessation counseling for just such individuals. In order to provide this counseling effectively, the “community stories” in the context of tobacco production, as well as the personal “stories” of these individuals, must be told, heard and understood. By understanding the historical, cultural and social significance of tobacco in communities, the paradox of tobacco’s simultaneous role as both a killer and a sustainer of life can be appropriately examined.
Methods: FirstHealth has captured both community and individual stories through written testimonies and photographs, each of which provide a poignant glimpse of the faces of tobacco addiction in the rural south. These personal portraits and the stories that accompany them demonstrate the value of telling, hearing and understanding tobacco addiction in a “tobacco culture.”
Results:Through community stories, the social acceptability of tobacco production and use that pervades the rural south provides an opportunity for reflective understanding of tobacco addiction beyond the physiological perspective. By the same token, the insights provided through personal stories of individual clients offer similar opportunities.
Conclusions: By developing a deep understanding of the personal experience of the tobacco user, efforts to recruit tobacco cessation program participants are framed appropriately and health educators are better equipped to offer cessation counseling with empathy.
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