A way out

Women with
disabilities
and Smoking

disabled Women's Hetwork Canada

What's in the booklet?
Why women with disabilities
smoke

Stages toward becoming an exsmoker
Weighing the good and bad
things about smoking
Ways to make quitting easier

*

Staying quit

For your copy of A Way Out, con­
tact DAWN Canada, 408-3637
Cambie St., Vancouver, BC V5Z
2X3, phone fax (604) 873-1564.

produced by

DAWN Canada:
Disabled Women's
Network Canada
project generously funded by

Health Canada
Tobacco Reduction Division part of the
Tobacco Demand Reduction Strategy
the opinions expressed in this brochure are
those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
of health Canada
illustrations by Catherine Hilborn
December 1996

Let us Help
Quitting smoking takes support,
time and planning. Very few
women just make up their mind Io
quit and do il.
DAWN Canada has written a book­
let to help women with disabilities
to quit. A Way Out: Women
with Disabilities and
>
Smoking is a unique 50
page workbook that
looks at why women
with disabilities
smoke, and offers
support and helpful
hints for women who
want to quit booklet is also
available on tape and on disc
The first copy of the booklet is free
to women with disabilities until
March 15/9/ xtra copies, plus
copies to professionals, will lie
available for a small cost - recovery
fee. After March 15 please contact
DAWN Canada for information on
how to get a copy.
We hope that a way out will help
women with disabilities to make
the choice to quit using tabacco
it's the single most important
health choice we can make

’Smoking is the most serious health issue
facing women today. Smoking has been
linked to heart disease, a variety of cancers,
lung disease, blood flow problems, stroke,
impaired fetal development and breast cancer.
A recent survey by DAWN Canada;
DisAbled Women's Network
Canada found that women with
disabilities are very much at risk for
substance use, including tobacco.
We also found that there is no
Information out there specifically
for women with disabilities to tell
us about the risks of smoking and
to help us quit.

Smoking
Tobacco addiction is a serious
health issues for women
but there are few or no
support services to help
us quit.
High unemployment,
poverty, isolation and
discrimination have
contributed to low

self-esteem and stress for
women with disabilities.
Women with disabilities say
that low self-esteem and stress
are the major reasons they con­
tinue to use tobacco.
For those of us who must de­
pend on others for help in our
daily lives, smoking is one of
the few things that gives us a
sense of control.

Eighty-percent of women with
mental health disabilities have
said that they use tobacco regu­
larly.
Women tend to smoke less
when they learn about the risks
of smoking and about things
that will help them quit.

Why Should We Quit?
in just a few hours, our bodies
start to heal
we will feel better and have
more energy
we'll breathe better, our hearts
slow down and our blood flow
improves
we'll feel included
and free to go any­
where

food smells and
tastes better, and
our clothes and
hair smell great!
no ugly yellow stains on
our teeth and fingers
we save money (up to $2000 or
more a year!)
we and our families breathe
clean air, instead of smoke

in three years, our chances of
having a heart attack is like
someone who has never
smoked