For media inquiries, please email quitwithus@la.gov.
Our Story
Quit With Us, Louisiana is a partnership between Well-Ahead Louisiana, an initiative of the Louisiana Department of Health, and the Louisiana Public Health Institute’s Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living. Together we are committed to helping Louisiana residents live life tobacco-free by connecting them free services to help them quit tobacco for good.
Why Quit With Us, Louisiana?
Tobacco use is all-too common for Louisiana adults:
- 20.5% smoke cigarettes
- 22.5% use electronic cigarettes, or vapes
- 5.35 use smokeless tobacco products 1
Quit With Us, Louisiana provides an easily accessible, free resource that offers counseling and FDA-medications. Used together, these tools have been proven to help tobacco users quit more easily than trying to stop cold turkey or using medication alone. Tobacco users who use these quit services are 60% more likely to successfully quit compared to those who attempt to quit without help.2, 3, 4
Health and Economic Benefits of Quitting
Quitting tobacco is the healthy choice for Louisiana residents who use tobacco, their loved ones and our state:
- Those who quit lower their risk for diseases and death caused by smoking and improve their health.5
- Their families are protected from secondhand smoke.6
- The $1.89 billion spent annually on healthcare costs directly caused by smoking would be reduced, benefiting the state’s economy.7
Promoting Health Equity Through Quit With Us, Louisiana
Quitting is hard for everyone, but it can be even harder for some. Depending on race, income, where someone lives or their education level, a person may see more tobacco advertising, have less healthcare options and be around secondhand smoke more often.
Everyone living in Louisiana deserves the opportunity to live a healthy, tobacco-free life regardless of race, education, gender sexual orientation, the job they have, the neighborhood they live in or whether they have a disability.
Quit With Us, Louisiana helps to eliminate barriers to tobacco cessation by providing free services from a certified Quit Coach through traditional phone calls, text, email and web chat. These services may not otherwise be offered in local communities or through health plans.
Quit With Us, Louisiana services are available in over 150 languages to all Louisiana residents. Accommodations – such as teletypewriter (TTY) and telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) – for hearing impaired and deaf residents are also available at 1-866-228-4327.
Well-Ahead Louisiana
Well-Ahead Louisiana was created in 2014 to engage community leaders to make changes at policy, system, and environmental levels to move Louisiana’s health forward.
As the chronic disease prevention and healthcare access arm of the Louisiana Department of Health, it drives collaboration across the state to connect Louisiana communities to a healthier future.
The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living
A program of the Louisiana Public Health Institute, the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) engages in local and statewide tobacco control policy efforts that focus on preventing tobacco us, eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke, promoting cessation services and identifying and eliminating tobacco-related disparities.
Dr. Earl Benjamin Robinson serves as the director of TFL, having previously worked with there in a health disparities and equity role. His responsibilities include program oversight, supervision and team building, budget and contract management, strategic planning, partnership development, and policy and media campaign input. From 2019-21, Dr. Robinson served as Director of the Office of Community Partnerships & Health Equity with the Louisiana Department of Health. He is an adjunct faculty at Xavier University of Louisiana’s Department of Public Health Sciences, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate public health courses.
RESOURCES
1. 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
2. Fiore, M., Jaén, C., Baker, T., Bailey, W., Benowitz, N., & Curry, S. (2008). Treating tobacco use and dependence: 2008 update U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline executive summary. Respiratory Care, 53(9), 1217–1222.
3. Stead, L. F., Hartmann-Boyce, J., Perera, R., & Lancaster, T. (2013). Telephone counselling for smoking cessation. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (8), CD002850. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002850.pub3
4. Lichtenstein, E., Glasgow, R. E., Lando, H. A., Ossip-Klein, D. J., & Boles, S. M. (1996). Telephone counseling for smoking cessation: rationales and meta-analytic review of evidence. Health Education Research, 11(2), 243–257.
5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: What It Means to You. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2004 [accessed 2013 June 5].
6. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General: Highlights: How to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones from Secondhand Smoke [PDF–63 KB]. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006 [accessed 2013 June 5].
7. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Broken Promises to Our Children: a State-by-State Look at the 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 20 Years Later FY2019, 2018.