State offers quit-smoking assistance

    Dieting, exercise and smoking cessation are typically the top three items on everyone’s list of personal goals, yet without the proper support they too often go unrealized.
    In New Jersey, approximately 1.15 million residents — or 17 percent of adults — smoke. Of that number, nearly 76 percent want to quit, yet without seeking help only a little better than 10 percent succeed. To help improve the odds of success, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services offers a variety of programs.
    New Jersey Quitcenters are smoking cessation clinics that offer a customized, face-to-face approach to quitting. The Quitcenter treatment model combines intensive individual or group counseling with the supervised use of nicotine patches, gum and inhalers.
    The result for clients is a quit rate that is more than double the abstinence rate for quitters with no treatment, and roughly 50 percent greater than those seeking group or individual counseling alone.
    Currently there are seven centers located conveniently across the state that provide services on a sliding fee scale according to income. NJ Quitcenter clients can purchase over the counter nicotine replacement therapy products at a reduced cost.
    In addition to the Quitcenters, the state offers NJ Quitline — a free, telephone-based counseling service — and NJ QuitNet — a free, online service with information, counseling, chat rooms and online peer support and encouragement.
    If you are seeking treatment for tobacco dependence, you can contact a Quitcenter near you. The Mercer County Tobacco Dependence program, which services Mercer County, has locations in downtown Trenton (609-396-7707), the Capital Health Care System (609-394-4340), and Mercerville (609-584-5900).
    The Somerset Medical Center Quit Center provides services in Somerset County (908-685-2442).
    The UMDNJ School of Public Health Quit Center provides services in Middlesex County (732-235-8222).
    For more information on all of the smoking cessation services offered by the state, including NJ Quitcenter locations, visit www.nj.quitnet.com, or call NJ Quitline at 866-NJ-STOPS.