Fontana Tobacco Treatment Center
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“The staff provides non-judgmental support. They understand what it feels like to be hooked on cigarettes.”
The Fontana Tobacco Treatment Center at UCSF Medical Center/Mt. Zion offers comprehensive smoking cessation and relapse prevention services. This interactive course focuses on:
4 Tuesdays, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
2 Thursdays, 5:30 – 6:45 pm
1600 Divisadero St., 3rd Floor,
Conference Rm H3805
415.885.7895
Registration Fee: $55. Please bring payment to the first class in the form of a check made out to UCSF Medical Center. You will receive written materials that you may keep. The program will also loan participants videotapes that will be collected at the next session.
- Smoking or Health.
This session will review the effects that smoking has on your lungs, heart and other organs. The relationship between smoking and cancer will be reviewed. The effects of carbon monoxide (CO), a by-product of smoking, will be discussed, and each member will have their CO level measured by a breathing test. You will be given written materials to review and a confidential questionnaire to complete and return at session 2. Brand-switching and scheduled reduction of cigarettes will begin. We will also begin to look at motivation and how we can we build on it. - Strategies for Quitting
Scheduled reduction results will be reviewed and discussed as a group. Nicotine replacement therapies (gum, patch, inhaler, spray and lozenge) and the medications Zyban and Chantix will be presented and discussed. Written materials describing these interventions will be provided. A description of the journey of change will be given to further support participants in building motivation to become smoke-free. - Addiction
The emotional factors that maintain smoking and nicotine’s effect on the brain will be reviewed. The pleasure you receive from smoking will be explained, as will the withdrawal effects you can expect when you quit. This session will give you the background information necessary for choosing a cessation aid like nicotine replacement or Zyban or Chantix. Participants will each set a quit date between the 3rd and 4th weeks. Ways to impact internal thought processes and thereby behavioral outcomes will be explored. - Motivation
This important session will solidify the prior 3 weeks’ work. The health benefits of cessation will be discussed in detail. The group will trouble-shoot specific problems that are encountered. Strategies to help smokers remain off cigarettes for a year will be discussed. Goal setting and preventing relapse will be addressed.
- Relapse Prevention
A feature of tobacco dependence is relapse. Stopping smoking is the first step. In these sessions, you can get support to remain smoke free or to keep working on reaching your goal. Upon completion of the 6-week Cessation Program, you are eligible to attend the weekly support group for as long as you decide. A $5 donation is requested, but not required.
Relapse Prevention
“The Relapse Prevention Support Group means we don’t get dropped. We get help building a smoke-free life.”
The Relapse Prevention Support Group meets every Monday (except holidays) from 5:30-6:45 pm and is available to graduates of the cessation program who want continued support to become and remain smoke-free. A $5 drop-in fee is requested but not required.
Individual consultation appointments with physicians trained in treating tobacco addiction are also available. Group programs are facilitated by a nurse who is a former smoker.
For further information or to confirm meeting locations, please call 415.885.7895.
