The free phone Asian Quitline® service was launched by QUIT® in September 1997 with financial support from the British Heart Foundation in response to a real need based upon health problems relating to smoking in the South Asian communities. QUIT recognized the need to provide a service to the South Asian Smokers who wanted support in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner.

Asian Quitline offers a free and confidential telephone counseling service in five different Asian languages - Bengali / Sylheti, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. All our professionally trained male and female Counselors are fluent in one of these languages and English.

Bengali 0800 00 22 44

Gujarati 0800 00 22 55

Hindi 0800 00 22 66

Punjabi 0800 00 22 77

Urdu 0800 00 22 88

Counselors offer advice and support on smoking cessation, diet and exercise in a way that is relevant to the caller's beliefs, attitudes and culture. Free information sheets and leaflets in all five Asian languages are also available and are sent to all callers who would like additional information. Callers are free to ring the service as many times as they need to for ongoing support.

A messaging service is available 24 hours a day. The messages give the callers information and motivational messages. There is also an option for the callers to be called back or receive written information by post.

Asian Quitline has received more than 200,000 calls since it was established. This demonstrates a real need for the service. Counselors have regularly taken part in health days, mela's and festivals and spoken at places of worship to raise awareness of the service, reassure potential callers of the confidential nature of the service and encourage people to stop smoking. Many calls to the service come to us a direct result of this intervention which has proved to be a valuable way of reaching Asian communities with vital healthcare messages.

In addition to telephone counseling for individual smokers, we also offer the following capacity building support to complement and enhance work already being done by the PCTs and their Health Development/Promotion Units and local organizations:-

Arabic speakers can draw upon this service  first launched in 2003 to support Ramadan Campaigns. 

TURKISH AND KURDISH LANGUAGE QUITLINE 0800 00 22 99: During Ramadan 1998-99, QUIT launched a pilot free phone service for Turkish and Kurdish speakers. Use of the line exceeded all expectations and in July 1999 a more permanent service was launched with funding from the inner London Health Action Zones. Our counselors are fully trained in smoking cessation and offer practical help and advice that is appropriate to the caller’s culture and language. In its first year, the service has received over 6,000 calls.

PREGNANCY QUITLINE: 0800 169 9 169: Following the success of QUIT’s Pregnancy Quitline pilot, the Department of Health have asked QUIT to run the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Help line. The service is available for pregnant women and women trying to conceive and offers friendly and non-judgmental advice to help them stop smoking. With the caller’s agreement, the fully trained counselors can also arrange to make regular call-backs to the woman to provide ongoing and intensive support during the quit process and to encourage her not to relapse after the birth of her baby.

BREAK FREE SCHOOLS PROJECT: The Break Free Schools Programme offers innovative presentations to 11-18 year olds on the dangers of smoking. Break Free encourages young people not to start smoking and offers help to those wanting to quit. The presentation does not lecture or preach, but enables teenagers to make an informed decision about smoking. The Break Free Schools Programme reaches over 200,000 pupils per year. QUIT has also recently produced a new resource for teachers. The Break Free Teacher’s Pack has been distributed to over 700 secondary schools who have received Break Free presentations.

POVERTY AND SMOKING: QUIT aims to help smokers on low incomes to stop. The Project works through Peer Education and by providing Social Workers and Money Advice Workers with practical training and resources to discuss smoking cessation, where appropriate, with their clients. In addition QUIT runs a Lone Parent & Smoking project funded by The National Lottery Charities Board. Working in conjunction with leading organizations this programme provides tailored support to lone parents who want to stop smoking.

WORKPLACE SERVICES: If you are introducing a new smoking policy it is vital to give staff help to cope. QUIT’s Workplace Service helps employers to implement effective smoking policies and improve the health of their workforce. We offer advice on the legal and practical aspects of smoking policies. Our Employer Support Programme helps staff adjust to smoking restrictions and, most important of all, helps them stop smoking. We have helped over 1,000 companies of all sizes, enabling them to tackle the health risks and the legal implications of smoking at work.

TRAINING: QUIT runs a variety of comprehensive smoking cessation training courses for health professionals. We are now offering modules that have minority ethnic community smoking cessation activity explained to empower local health professionals.