Every Thursday during October the OT team planned and facilitated activities for both service user and staff to participate in and distract themselves from smoking cravings. This included games like bingo and zenga, baking for a fundraising event, a Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) workshop and a ‘Fresh Air’ art project.
It is a tiring and hard goal to stop smoking but the team at Ealing are determined to achieve a healthier lifestyle so that everyone in the hospital will be able to enjoy literally fresh air. The aim of the ‘Fresh Air’ session was to get service users and staff involved and to capture through art work the meaning of fresh air.
The sessions were a great success with feedback including:
‘It took my mind off things I was stressing about’
‘It distracted me, so I didn’t need to manage’
‘No cravings. Just concentrated on the ‘fresh’ photographs’