PHILADELPHIA — Today, School District of Philadelphia representatives, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) clinical leaders, and youth-serving organizations joined Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) leadership to announce the launch of a new citywide media campaign, Don’t Get Finessed, which promotes treatment for vaping addiction among Philadelphia youth and young adults.
PDPH and its partners also discussed citywide strategies to reduce youth and young adult vaping, including preventing youth access, mini-grants and grant opportunities for community partners, data collection, and promoting vaping treatment resources.
“Recent data clearly show that use of vaping products is increasing among high school students in Philadelphia,” said Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, Commissioner, Philadelphia Department of Public Health. “Vaping products have inherent harms to the physical and mental health of youth and also increase the risk for use of other types of tobacco products.”
According to recent data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 20 percent of Philadelphia high school-age youth currently use vaping products, which greatly exceeds the use of other tobacco products, such as cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Additional data indicate that use of vaping products is associated with lower academic performance.
“Reducing health-related barriers to learning and supporting students’ academic success is at the core of the School District’s mission and purpose,” said Dr. Kendra McDow, School System Medical Officer, School District of Philadelphia. “There is firm evidence that vaping adversely impacts the health and academic outcomes of youth. By partnering with PDPH, we are strengthening the reach and impact of the District’s programs and activities to prevent youth vaping and helping to connect youth to treatment resources.”
Don’t Get Finessed seeks to encourage young people to avoid or quit vaping by raising awareness of its costly mental, physical and financial effects and to support the sharing and promotion of campaign messages, quitting resources and aligned efforts. The campaign intentionally emphasizes healthy alternatives for stress relief, a variety of engagement strategies and the avoidance of strictly punitive measures to help young people with vaping.
Through a newly created partnership with the Truth Initiative, the campaign encourages any Philadelphia young people who are struggling with vaping product use to text “KickTheVape” to 88709. They will then be immediately connected with the Truth Initiative’s EX Program, where they can receive free, industry-leading, and evidence-based support proven to help young people quit vaping.
More information on the campaign can be found at KickTheVape.org.