Brief Conversations Toolkit
Allies who want to dig a little deeper into helping youth make healthier choices have a wide range of strategies to explore. One can’t-miss skill to flex is motivational interviewing.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational interviewing (MI) is a person-centered strategy that helps people explore and resolve ambivalence. Ambivalence is the conflict of motivations.
MI is about arranging conversations so that people talk themselves into change, based on their own values and interests. It is about guiding and not directing. Your ability to build rapport while supporting young people when talking about behavior change is crucially important. You don’t need to be an expert on the topic at hand when you’re leading with compassion.
“I don’t want to quit vaping. I’d find it really hard to feel left out when my friends are all doing it…”
“…buuuuut it’s getting really unaffordable, and I think it might be affecting my athletic performance. Maybe I do want to quit?”
How do you know if you did it right?
“Would they feel comfortable coming back to talk to me again?”
Ask yourself at the end of a discussion,
If the answer was yes, then you’re leading with compassion!
Extra Credit
These free resources can help you start high-impact conversations in your community, clinic, or classroom.
Cessation Strategies
Youth who smoke and/or vape often want to quit but require support to do so. When we look at the data, we can see the hunger for change!
That’s not to say that they always reach their goals. In fact, these quit attempts are often unsuccessful due to the difficulty of quitting unassisted, one of young Canadians’ top choices for “quit method”.
have attempted to quit two to three times in the past year
have made at least one quit attempt in the past year
We think there’s a better way – and it starts with you.
Everyone has a different reason they want to quit. It’s essential for youth to be able to identify why they are quitting so they can remind themselves throughout the process.
When people make a commitment, they are more likely to follow through with it if they write it down/type a note in their phone, instead of just thinking it. That commitment gets even stronger when youth tell someone about that commitment.
Social support is strongly linked with helping people quit and avoiding slips. We know that sometimes youth hide their smoking/vaping status, making it difficult to ask for help. Have youth identify allies and support in their life that they can lean on during their quit journey.
A strength is something that makes you feel strong. Youth should lean on their strengths and remind themselves of what makes them feel strong. Youth should identify strengths that will assist them in their quit journey.
Small changes to a daily routine can help youth create new healthy habits and a new routine during their quit process. New routines and healthy habits can help youth focus on healthy habits rather than their cravings. Youth should create an action plan for how they will achieve both their quit and healthy habit goals. Examples of healthy habits to add to daily routine:
Triggers are factors that make youth want to smoke or vape and will be different for each person. Triggers can be everyday tasks, feelings, people, places, or events. When working with youth, ask them questions such as:
It’s important for youth to understand what cravings are to be able to identify them when they happen and how to curb them in a healthy manner. Triggers can contribute to cravings. Youth can keep track of their cravings by logging:
By tracking cravings, youth can understand behaviours and patterns in their routines that might trigger cravings. Youth can leverage their healthy habits to help distract them with a healthier alternative from their craving in the moment. Tips to help youth get through a craving:
It is vital to increase teens' self-efficacy for quitting smoking/vaping by:
Create a Quit Plan with Youth
Creating a quit plan with youth can help them increase their chance of a successful quit attempt.
Quitting vaping or smoking can be challenging once a teen has developed a physical dependence and/or an addiction to nicotine. By supporting them through their quit process, they are more likely to succeed. Creating a quit plan with youth can help them increase their chance of success.
Scroll through the following to get more information on how to create a quit plan with youth, or jumpstart the Quit Plan process in the Quash app.
Additional Educational Resources and Training Materials
Feeling like you want to learn even more about supporting youth and young adults to quit smoking or vaping? We’ve put together a list of trusted resources, trainings, and certificate programs for you to browse.
Award winning trainings in smoking cessation through the Centre of Addictions and Mental Health. The Training Enhancement in Applied Counselling and Health (TEACH) Project is Canada’s benchmark tobacco cessation education program. TEACH provides continuing education and capacity-building focused on training healthcare providers to support their patients/clients with tobacco addiction and cessation, and address e-cigarette use/vaping. For more information about certificate programs, trainings, and webinars
There are two versions of the Quash program that can be used separately or together, depending on the needs of the young person trying to quit:
The Lung Health Foundation recognizes the importance of having standardized training for its program facilitators and has developed an online training course for those interested in delivering the Quash youth smoking and vaping cessation program. The free certificate training equips allies to deliver the Quash smoking and vaping cessation program to youth in their communities.
Public Health Ontario (PHO) keeps Ontarians safe and healthy. Alongside partners in government, public health and health care, they aim to prevent illness and improve health, and provide the scientific evidence and expert guidance that shapes policies and practices for a healthier Ontario.
Find out more information about tobacco and e-cigarettes, including reports, webinars, and news.
OTRU is home to several full-time researchers, including scientists and research associates at the PhD level who act as our project leads. Staff coordinate OTRU’s activities and carry out our research, evaluation, training, and dissemination projects.
Want to deliver a presentation to school staff or other public health staff as part of a training? Check out this fully developed presentation that walks you through a summary of the Brief Conversations Toolkit.
There is a recorded presentation for your own personal viewing, and a presentation for you to facilitate.
Meet the Experts
Developed by Ontario’s public health experts, the Conversations Toolkit aims to help curb the youth vaping epidemic by increasing knowledge and application of Brief Contact Interventions (BCI) among those who work or engage with youth who smoke, vape or use other nicotine products.
The Lung Health Foundation (LHF)
LHF is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending gaps in the prevention, diagnosis, and care of lung disease in Canada. We invest in the future by driving groundbreaking research, and we give patients and their families the programs and support they need today. Learn, share, and donate on their website.
The Youth Nicotine Dependence Advisory Committee (YNDAC)
YNDAC is a partnership of Public Health Units and other organizations, groups, and agencies with a focus on youth commercial tobacco, vaping and nicotine product use prevention, cessation and enforcement in Ontario. The committee works to provide a forum for provincial partners to collaborate to develop, implement and evaluate a comprehensive, coordinated, evidence-informed approach to reduce rates of nicotine addiction among Ontario youths by:
Maintaining the Youth Smoking and Vaping Situational Assessment, through the ongoing review and collection of evidence related to adult tobacco and/or vaping use prevention, cessation and/or enforcement.
Identifying opportunities for collaborative action that will reduce duplication, increase effectiveness, and contribute to the achievement of the project goals and objectives.
Developing and implementing collaborative programming, using Public Health Ontario’s (2018) Planning Health Promotion Programs process.
We’d love to hear what you think
Take the short survey, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Potenti egestas amet purus morbi.
Join our community
Want to stay connected in the youth vaping space?
We'd love your feedback!
Fill out a short survey to help us improve the toolkit experience.
The Brief Conversations Toolkit was made possible through a financial contribution from the Ontario Ministry of Education.
Powered by Innovasium