Inner South Community Health is an organisation which has taken a proactive approach to smoking cessation by addressing smoking with some of the most vulnerable groups in the community. Stav Zandes was recently invited to train a diverse group of staff which has further strengthened and extended the smoking cessation delivery to a population of  disadvantaged smokers.

Stav holds a lovely sense of enthusiasm for her work which teams up well with her practical and engaging approach as a trainer. Subsequently, confidence and enthusiasm are developed in the participants as the natural outcome. Stav blends her many years’ experience from working at Quit Victoria with some illuminating anecdotal material which resonates as valuable resources to motivate clients. The training has been a catalyst for developing more sustainable support networks within the organisation in dealing with complex smoking cessation client work, and has also provided further opportunities for clients to engage their attention to smoking cessation when receiving other services. Stav’s training provides a solid and holistic base for any health care professional to build on their skills to engage and support clients with smoking cessation.

Because Stav was able to provide flexibility in her service delivery, the material was tailored to our organisation’s cultural setting, increasing the opportunity for a range of professionals to make meaningful connections with the training material. I highly recommend Stav as a trainer and presenter – her warm and personable style makes the material accessible and stimulating. The training material provided has a sound evidence base and is relevant to an array of settings in the community.

As the Smoking Cessation Support Nurse Co-ordinator (Advanced Practice) within an acute Cancer Care hospital, I had the professional pleasure to work closely for several years, with Stavroula Zandes in her role as the Cessation Settings Manager at Quit Victoria.

Stav enabled staff within my organisation access to excellent education which she facilitated and conducted, and as such developed a team of Smoking Cessation professionals within our organisation who are able to provide expert support for cancer patients to quit smoking.  Notwithstanding, I also was employed by Quit Victoria to conduct sessional training for health professionals with Stav, and as such was able to experience firsthand, the exceptional quality of Stav’s training, professional behaviours, knowledge and skilled application as she facilitated the education sessions.

Since 2002, when the Smoking Cessation Support program was initiated in our hospital, Quit Victoria became a key stakeholder in assisting access to advice, information and importantly education support to develop “Quit Champions”, expert knowledge on tobacco control issues and becoming a Totally Smoke Free hospital.  Through Quit Victoria, as the Smoking Cessation Program Nurse Coordinator, I was introduced to Stav Zandes and was immediately impressed by her professional qualities of educator and facilitator, organisation skills, capacity to coordinate and conduct intense training of large groups.  Her knowledge maintenance is evidence based, contemporary, and reliable.  Feedback from participants that our organisation supported to attend Stav’s education at Quit Victoria was always extremely positive and Stav’s exemplary skills as an educator appreciated and commented on.  As such, our staff were confident and felt well skilled in approaching the sometimes difficult topic of quitting smoking with cancer patients, using the skills of empathy, consideration and motivational interviewing they learnt under Stav’s tuition.

During the years I have worked closely with Stav, I personally have found her as a colleague that was always a pleasure to associate with.  Her enthusiasm, passion for her work and desire to assist people achieve healthier lifestyles and improved outcomes were ever present.  She is highly approachable, engaging and very amicable.

I can only highly recommend Stavroula Zandes with her friendly demeanour and excellent professional skills for Health & Wellbeing Training.  Her knowledge, flexibility and capacity to translate her skills into various health promotion settings would be an asset to any organisation that values their employees and customers to achieve overall healthful wellbeing through either smoking cessation or be it weight control, stress management or mindfulness.

Both my colleague Caitlyn Wilson and I had the pleasure of meeting Stavroula Zandes at the end of 2011 when she was Quit Victoria’s Training Manager. We attended Quit’s 2 day Educator training as Work Health representatives from Incolink.  Incolink administers industry funds and provides information and support to employer and employee members in the building and construction industry throughout Victoria.

We were immediately impressed by Stav’s passion for tobacco control, her in-depth knowledge of the subject as well as her professional and approachable nature.  She displayed excellent training skills and was a dynamic presenter. She engaged and established rapport with the whole group very quickly through her facilitation of active learning consisting of open discussions, quizzes and role plays where we felt safe to participate, without judgement.

Our smoking cessation project was in partnership with WorkHealth to deliver health checks in the commercial construction industry. As part of this program, we were delivering various information sessions to worksites that have completed health checks, including implementing a smoking cessation program for our smoking members. Results from approximately 20,000 WorkHealth checks conducted from 2010 to 2013 on all the Incolink sites, revealed that 35% of the population smoked. We were therefore very keen to engage in the smoking cessation conversation with workers and to distribute quit smoking information, encouraging our members to quit.

In short, given Stav’s passion and dedication to community health and wellbeing, and her ability to inspire and motivate others, we would certainly work with her again in the future.

Our staff completed smoking cessation training with Stavroula and as a result, we have successfully delivered a number of smoking cessation programs to our clients who have a mental illness. In a number of cases, we have been able to help clients reduce their smoking with a view to quitting in the future. Some of our clients have quit successfully and we have helped them maintain their achievements.

We have also been able to adapt our smoking cessation services to successfully assist people from CALD backgrounds to help them work towards and achieve a smokefree life. As a training facilitator, Stav is very professional and personable which is imperative for good learning and understanding. Our staff found training with Stav to be engaging and supportive with very useful tools and techniques to be able to confidently deliver sessions independently.

As a result of attending Stav’s training, we have been able to go on to presenting the successes we’ve had with our smoking cessation programs at conferences. As new staff come on board, we would definitely be looking to use Stav for future requirements.