HEALTH teams in Barnsley are proudly celebrating three years of a stop smoking service.

Since the QUIT service was launched in January 2022, the team has assessed nearly 700 mental health patients that smoke, treating them for their tobacco addiction by helping them with harm reduction, cutting down and quitting smoking.

They have supported 184 patients and 37 staff to successfully quit smoking and 133 patients to successfully reduce their smoking.

Professor Subha Thiyagesh, chief medical officer at the South West Yorkshire NHS Partnership Trust, said: “A big thank you and recognition to the local teams for their dedicated focus on this.

“The difference the QUIT programme makes to our service users and staff is significant and could not have happened without the fantastic collaborative work of everyone involved over the past few years.”

A key part of the success has been the collaborative delivery of a Yorkshire Cancer Research funded pilot and the swap to stop scheme that has provided vapes to help more patients and staff stop smoking.

Paul Lambert, head of services at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said: “The charity is pleased to have provided the opportunity for people in the region to trial vape kits and gain the benefits that stopping smoking brings.”

Leanne Sparks from the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, highlighted the trust’s contribution to regional priorities.

She added: “Supporting people to stop smoking is the single most effective way of reducing health inequalities and in turn improve quality of life.

“Across South Yorkshire, our mental health trusts have used the QUIT programme to deliver huge cultural change amongst patients and staff around the harms of tobacco and in doing so have supported over 350 individuals to stop smoking.”