Insights and intervention for youth vaping

In September 2023, Healthy Dialogues were commissioned by the Public Health team in Merton to develop and pilot interventions to discourage vaping among young people. 

This project was carried out in three overlapping phases: 

1. Gathering insights from local young people and professionals who work with young people 
2. Designing pilot interventions, including resource packs, workshops and a social media campaign 
3. Piloting the interventions by sharing the resource packs, delivering the workshops and launching the social media campaign 

You can access our resource packs, social media campaign and workshop slides here. 

Insights 

We conducted interviews, focus groups, polls and surveys to gain a picture of youth vaping in Merton, engaging with over 750 young people and 22 stakeholders. From this we found that: 

• Vaping is seen as a normalised behaviour among young people, with many trying it to look cool, or to fit in with others 

• Many young people do not know the risks of vaping 

• Vapes are being marketed to young people, with their different flavours, colours and shapes 

• Vapes are easy for young people to buy or steal from shops, friends and family members and dealers 

• Young people are getting better at hiding vapes, with some putting them in their school ties and waistbands to avoid being caught 

• Effective messages to discourage youth vaping should be centred around, health risks , chemicals in vapes, financial costs of vaping  and illegal vapes.
  

Workshops 

By drawing on our insights, examining recent literature and using behaviour change science, we developed and delivered successful, evidence-based Kick the Cloud workshops to discourage vaping among young people in Merton. These workshops cover: 

• Information on vapes, and risks to vaping 

• Trends of vaping in young people 

• Where to go to for support to stop vaping 

• Top tips for stopping vaping 

These workshops were delivered to over 600 young people in Merton, who found it enjoyable, interactive and informative: 

“They explained in detail and also interacted with the class, making the process more fun!” 

“Informative and builds confidence for those who want to quit and/or need to seek help” 

“I got to learn about lots of different facts about vapes and vaping and how it can harm you in so many different ways.” 

Following the workshop young people showed: 

• reduction in the number who desired to vape
  

• Increased knowledge where to go for support

• Reduction in the number of those who intended to vape in the future

Workshops were also delivered to professionals who work with young people and parents which covered how to support a young person to stop vaping, drawing on a motivational interviewing approach. 

To find out more about these workshops, and to access workshop slides and a lesson plan, visit: Kick the Cloud

Social Media Campaign 

We developed our Kick the Cloud social media campaign in collaboration with local young people. This is campaign is made up of 4 videos and 14 images on the following vaping-related topics: 

• Health risks of vaping 

• Chemicals in vapes 

• Financial costs of vaping 

• Illegal vapes 

In focus groups, reaching 38 young people, feedback was positive about the campaign with young people particularly enjoying the messages and styles used. 

Look out for our images on our Instagram page: @healthydialogues 

Resource Packs 

We collated existing resources around vaping that are available online, including lesson plans, informational webpages and videos. 

We also developed additional resources, as informed by our insights gathering, including:

• Posters/leaflets around vaping 

• A lesson plan for the Kick the Cloud workshop for young people and a version of the slides with a script 

We developed two resource packs, incorporating the collated resources and our developed resources, along with workshop slides and our social media campaign. 

You can access these resource packs here.