Abstract

Individuals involved in multiple substance abuse are among a sector of the Canadian population who are hard-to-reach, and usually heavy smokers. This paper outlines the development of an approach to smoking cessation intervention for hard-to-reach multiple substance abusing males. The approach is based on the Integrated Human Ecology and Transtheoretical Stages of Change Model of Smoking Behaviour (Munro, Doherty-Poirier, Munro & Ohler-Madsen, 1995), and incorporates the use of a comic book as a key component of the intervention. Other components include Prochaska & DeClemente’s (1992; Lee et al., 2004) stages of change model, addiction therapy guidelines (Waltman, 1995) and resiliency concepts (Mangham, Reid, McGrath & Steward, 1994). This paper describes a pilot project undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of the comic book, then offers recommendations for the development of similar interventions for other special populations.