Sebasticook Valley Hospital’s Healthy Living Program’s “Quit & Win,” a free tobacco cessation program that provides local support and incentives, has become more accessible for people who want to stop using tobacco. The five-week program that was offered quarterly each year is now an ongoing program, so participants can enroll anytime they wish – and still be able to win prizes and reap the benefits of a program that has helped thousands to stop using tobacco.

According to Dawn Littlefield, Healthy Maine Partnership Director for the Sebasticook Valley Region, “People no longer need to wait to sign up for this program: now, the only requirements are they are at least 18 years old and have registered by contacting our office or sending in a form from the newspaper.”? Dawn reported that participants choose a “helper”? who supports them in quitting during the five-week course, and both the quitter and the helper can win cash prizes for their efforts.

“Quit and Win is more than a local stop tobacco program,” Dawn explained. “It is a global effort. The National Public Health Institute and the World Health Organization first implemented the program in 1994. Over one hundred countries and one million tobacco users worldwide are involved in Quit and Win. In Maine, at least three Healthy Maine Partnerships are involved with this program statewide.”

Anyone wishing to sign up or find out more about “Quit and Win”? can contact the Healthy Living office in Pittsfield by calling 487-3890 (exts. 110 or 114) or by email at dlittlefield@emh.org. Sebasticook Valley Hospital is a fiscal agent of Healthy Living, which is a Healthy Maine Partnership of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.