Políticas públicas e educação para a cessação do tabagismo

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to present the mechanisms involved in the smokers’ decision-making process for quit smoking, aiming at providing a new perspective concerning the “tabagism quitting moment”. It was intended to glimpse the possibility of leading the population in general, smoker and non-smoker, to a new representation concerning the tabagism quitting moment, in order to change several common sense concepts as to this occasion, (pre)concepts that prevent a lot of smokers from making the decision to stop smoking, due to the fear of facing this moment. The analyses that Cavalcante (2001) develops concerning the need for knowledge socialization concerning tabagism as a dependency and especially about intervention processes for stop smoking in the medical environment, supported the needs analysis of favoring a socialization of these knowledge to professionals of other health areas as well as the areas of education, communication, among others. Education has an essential role in the analysis carried out and, in this sense, the concept of education in health developed by some authors such as Michaliszyn (2006), L’Abbate (1994), Valla (1992) and Candeias (1997), supported the work and pointed out this field of education – the education in health – as extremely important for the research, the development and spread of the necessary information for a better awareness of the tabagism complexity, and especially, of the intervention processes for the quitting of smoking in professional, social and individual terms. In this sense, the work considers the suggestion of an educational process concerning tabagism quitting aiming at health professional’s education, as well as professionals of other areas of knowledge such as education and communication, preparing them to act with competence in this action, as knowledge mediators who will enable smokers to opt for tabagism quitting. It is concluded that it is necessary the education of health professionals in general, through an education process aimed at their preparation for a correct and efficient care to the smoker patient, in order to obtain a considerable increase in the number of smokers that make the decision of stop smoking, by discovering that there are favorable ways for tabagism quitting.