Smoking Cessation and RTQ

University Health and Counseling Services (UHCS) provides support to help you stop smoking and stay smoke-free. Individual medical and/or mental health visits are available to students. NUSHP offers additional smoking cessation options to students enrolled in the plan.

Ready to Quit! (RTQ) is a comprehensive and individualized smoking cessation program developed for students. Quitting smoking tobacco can be a challenging experience, but you don’t have to do it alone. UHCS can help you along the way by offering up-to-date information and resources, various evidence-based treatment options, and more importantly compassionate care and positive encouragement. Interested in starting Ready To Quit!? Complete an assessment form on line and UHCS will contact you to set up an appointment.

Click on the questions in the list below to display detailed information about the RTQ program and other resources, types of tobacco products and cessation aids, and the benefits of quitting smoking tobacco.

What can I expect if I decide to participate in the Ready To Quit! program?

An initial evaluation with a medical provider to develop a partnership and discuss a personalized smoking cessation plan. This may include nicotine replacement products or medications offered free of charge for participants in the program.
Check in meetings are typically weekly for the first month or so and then spaced over time
The program is typically 12 weeks, but the timeline is individualized for each person
Opportunity to meet with a mental health therapist for concerns about quitting.

What will my treatment plan include?

Your treatment plan may include nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as nicotine patches and gum or lozenge, and/or medications, such as Chantix.

More often than not, your clinician may combine two different cessation aids (i.e. two types of NRT) to help you stop smoking and stop smoking tobacco. Studies have shown this strategy is very effective in smoking cessation compared to using just one medication alone. It’s also important to use enough medication and long enough to manage your withdrawal symptoms, desires and urges to help you stop smoking for good. You and your clinician can determine which cessation aids are the best for you.

How much does it cost to participate in the Ready to Quit! program?

What supports will my TTS provide?

Why should I quit smoking?

How do I get started?

How can smoking cessation aids help?

Cessation aids help decrease withdrawal symptoms (i.e. trouble sleeping, mood changes, and trouble concentrating, etc.) from nicotine that is found in tobacco products. Additionally, cessation aids help in reducing desires and urges to smoke and use tobacco. By decreasing withdrawal symptoms, reducing desires and urges allows you to focus on modifying behaviors that may be associated with smoking and tobacco use.

What are the different types of smoking cessation aids?

What makes smoking and tobacco use so harmful?

When tobacco is burned, for example cigarette smoke, approximately 4,000 (i.e. cyanide, arsenic, lead, etc.) chemicals are released and inhaled into your body. Exposure to these chemicals has been shown to cause various types of cancer (i.e. mouth, throat, lungs, stomach, etc). Although nicotine alone, like that found in cigarettes, has not been shown to cause cancer, many other chemicals in tobacco products do. When you stop smoking or stop using other tobacco products, most chemicals leave your body quickly (hours, days, months), however many may remain for years. Read more about What’s in a Cigarette? by the American Lung Association.