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Women And Tobacco Coalition for Health (WATCH)

WATCH is a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary coalition whose purpose is to share and disseminate information around women's health and smoking. WATCH uses its collective synergy to broaden the efforts of existing programs to influence, advocate, and educate around women's health and smoking issues.

WATCH's vision is to improve the health of North Carolina women and their families by eliminating tobacco use and exposure.

The Mission of WATCH is to promote best practices, implement programs, develop partnerships, advocate for policy change, and monitor the performance and progress of tobacco prevention and cessation efforts for North Carolina women and their families.

Several major accomplishments include the development and revision of a comprehensive Guide for Counseling Women Who Smoke. This guidebook has been nationally recognized. The Guide supports the 5A’s best practice model, which has been proven to be the most effective approach to tobacco cessation counseling. The revisions include updated facts, information, and resources. The Guide has sections on Secondhand Smoke, Smokeless Tobacco, Counseling Through the Lifespan, Cultural Perspectives of Counseling, and Pharmacotherapy. If you would like to see a copy of this Guide, please email Judy Ruffin at Judy.Ruffin@ncmail.net. The Guide is available on line here.

A companion piece to the Guide is the Counseling From the Heart video. This video has been updated to include the 5A’s method of counseling and more tips for counseling through the reproductive lifespan. Counseling from the Heart, won an “Award of Excellence” from the 2008 APEX Awards for Public Excellence in the category of Education and Training Electronic & Video Publications. This award, sponsored by Communication Concepts, was based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the success in achieving overall communications effectiveness and excellence.

In 2003, WATCH worked with the American College of OB/GYNs as part of a select group of states to address smoking during pregnancy. As part of this effort, the coalition did a statewide survey of prenatal care providers to assess their knowledge and use of smoking cessation techniques. The Center for Women’s Health Research at the Cecil Sheps Center in Chapel Hill was the major force behind the implementation of the Survey. Survey results are posted on the Resources page.

For more information about WATCH, please contact Judy Ruffin at (919)707-5712 or judy.ruffin@ncmail.net.

Interested in joining WATCH? Please complete our profile sheet and send it to Judy Ruffin. Click here to access the sheet.

Meetings

• October 2009 minutes
• July 2009 minutes
• April 2009 minutes
• January 2009 minutes

Members