About the Campaign
Don’t Be Silent About Smoking is a social marketing campaign developed by the New York State Department of Health’s Tobacco Control Program. The campaign was created in collaboration with New York State clinicians and targets physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners in the state.
The purpose of the campaign is to encourage primary health care providers and other clinicians to take an active role in helping their patients who smoke to quit. The campaign reminds clinicians that effective treatment for tobacco dependence is available, and every patient who smokes should be offered effective treatment. Research shows that when providers assist their patients to quit, patient success in quitting increases substantially. Quitting smoking dramatically reduces a person’s chances of suffering and dying from a smoking-related disease. Helping patients to overcome chronic tobacco dependence is one of the most cost effective interventions clinicians can provide to improve their patients’ health.
Advertisements like the ones you see on this website began appearing across the state on February 1, 2008 on medical websites, and in medical journals, newspapers, and other publications. This website supplements the media campaign by offering easy-to-access information and resources to help clinicians assist their patients to quit smoking. It also provides links to the 19 Tobacco Cessation Centers funded by the Department of Health to provide free assistance to health care providers to put in place the policies, practices, and procedures to deliver effective treatment for tobacco use and help their patients quit.
