Winning Path:
African American Smoking Cessation

 

Winning Path is a quit smoking program that has beencustomized for African American adult smokers.  Winning Path uses a basic framework of successive sessions that is similar to other smoking cessation programs developed for the general population.  However, Winning Path is an "assisted self-help" programthat uses Pathways to Freedom: Winning the Fight Against Tobacco, a self-help guide, as theprimary participant workbook. The Pathways  guide has an excellent 10-year record in helping African Americansquit smoking and was released in an updated form by the Office on Smokingand Health (CDC) in September 2003.  Charyn Sutton has trained facilitators in Winning Path in Arkansas, Maryland, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  For more information on having facilitators trained in Winning Path, click here.

Inaddition to providing standard smoking cessation advice, WinningPath addresses specificissues that have impeded the delivery of smoking cessation to African Americansmokers in the past.  These include:higher than average drop-out rates from organized smoking cessation classes,greater use of menthol cigarettes, and less use of nicotine replacement therapies.  Many of the existing WinningPath programs are being delivered as part of the health ministries of local churches, and encourage prayer and spiritualityin quit attempts.  In WinningPath, fivesessions precede a smoker's Quit Day, and three follow it.  Each sessionfollows a prescribed curriculum and is designed to be community competent forBlack smokers, their family and friends.   

Withthe Winning Path approach to cessation:

  Participants are given the tools to customize their personal quit smoking approaches to address the three major components of smoking: physical addiction, habit/triggers, and stress.  

  Mentholated cigarettes, which are preferred by most African American smokers, are discussed in detail, and menthol brand smokers are encouraged to seek alternatives to menthol use as well as nicotine replacements. 

  Smokers are allowed (but not required) to bring non-smoking friends and family members to the sessions to be their support persons and the design of the sessions accommodate the needs of everyone who attends -- smokers and non-smoking support persons. 

  Thespecial life stresses that come from being poor, Black and/or disadvantaged are discussed – not as excuses for smoking, but as characteristics that must be addressed in developing ways to quit smoking and avoid relapses.

  Theuse of nicotine replacement therapies is explained against the backdrop of concerns that have been expressed by Black smokers about so-called "medical experimentation" and the use of NRT products as a "crutch." 

  "Cigarette stand-ins" like sugarless candies, cinnamon sticks, pens and papers for doodling, Greek worry beads, and Chinese hand balls, are strongly recommended as alternatives for smokers who are trying to breakoral and tactile habits associated with cigarette smoking. 

  Whilethe classes are sequential, they are also independent.  So participants can miss classes and still benefit from the classes they can attend, as long as they continue to use thePathwaysself-help guide and other resources available in the larger community, such as telephone quitlines.

CharynD. Sutton developed the Winning Path approach, working initially with African American tobaccocontrol programs in Pennsylvania and Arkansas.  Sutton c-authored Pathways to Freedom: Winning theFight against Tobacco, working with Dr. Robert G. Robinson, principal investigator for the Pathways project.  She prepared the CDC'sonline summary of Pathways' success stories, testimonials and suggestions.  Sutton also was a consultant on Quit Today!which  evaluated the effectiveness of the Pathways guide in helpingAfrican Americans quit smoking.  Boththe initial Pathways project and Quit Today! were developed at the FoxChase Cancer Center and funded by the National Cancer Institute. 

Inaddition to her work with Pathways, Sutton contributed to the 1998 SurgeonGeneral's Report on Tobacco Use and U.S. Ethnic/Racial Minorities.  Throughher consultant company, The Onyx Group, Sutton has organized tobacco prevention and controlconferences for African Americans and other communities of color in Arkansas,Delaware, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.  Sutton is currently working as aconsultant on tobacco control projects funded by theAmerican Legacy Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Health andon several projects related to the marketing of mentholated cigarettes in communities ofcolor. 

InDecember 2002, Charyn Sutton provided testimony to the cessation subcommittee ofthe Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health (ICSH) on SmokingCessation and African Americans.

The Onyx Group
P.O. Box 60
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
Tel: 610-667-7095
E-mail: info@CharynSutton.org 
URL: www.CharynSutton.org

 Last updated 02/06/05