SEATTLE, February 8, 2012 – Today, Alere Wellbeing, Inc. (formerly Free & Clear, Inc.) announced that its industry-leading tobacco cessation program, Quit For Life®, is now available in Spanish, removing language as a major barrier to quitting for Spanish speakers.
Tobacco use is a powerful addiction that most people try to overcome several times before they succeed. With expert support and proper use of medication, chances of success can be improved significantly, yet smokers who speak Spanish as their first language are often unable to take advantage of such support.
“Studies show that getting expert help significantly increases a smoker’s chances of quitting – especially when the program is individually tailored,” says Ken Wassum, Associate Director of Clinical Development and Support at Alere Wellbeing. “Providing Quit For Life® in Spanish allows us to connect with tobacco users who were previously considered ‘unreachable’ and grant them barrier-free access to the individualized support they need to quit smoking successfully.”
Quit For Life® in Spanish, available to employers and health plans, features phone-based coaching with a native Spanish-speaking Quit Coach®, integrated with Web Coach®, the most innovative and advanced online learning and social support community available for tobacco users. Clients receive dedicated account management, transparent reporting, and a customizable promotions package including a website (www.quitnow.net) and more than 100 materials and emails in Spanish.
Alere Wellbeing’s Spanish-speaking Quit Coaches are native speakers hailing from countries like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and more. Quit For Life® has the highest standards for coaching in the industry, including ongoing mentoring, training, and evaluation. Spanish-speaking coaches go through four additional weeks of training focused on culture and dialect and also receive linguistic training in symptomology and medication dosing regimens.
“Our experience comes from serving nearly 20,000 Spanish speakers in 2011, an increase of 161 percent since 2009,” says Alere Wellbeing Executive Vice President Mary Kate Salley. “Offering effective assistance to Spanish speakers during their quit involves more than just acting as a translation service. Our program addresses relevant cultural nuances and incorporates the knowledge we’ve gained from assisting 28 state quitlines in their efforts to reach Spanish speakers.”
For more information please visit www.alerewellbeing.com.
About Alere Wellbeing
Alere Wellbeing brings together science, technology, and personal interaction to help people recognize and modify unhealthy behaviors to avoid chronic illness and live longer, more vital lives. Alere Wellbeing’s evidence-based programs address modifiable health risks that contribute to chronic disease: tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and stress. Current clients include 27 state governments and more than 650 health plans and employers, 63 of which are in the Fortune 500. Alere Wellbeing is known and respected for its pay-for-performance business model, intense focus on scalable service quality, dedicated account management, continuous program improvement, and transparent reporting of measurable outcomes at the individual participant and aggregate population level. Alere Wellbeing has contributed to more than 100 published research studies and maintains collaboration with the American Cancer Society® and an active research program funded by the Centers for Disease Control, American Legacy Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. More information about Alere Wellbeing can be found at www.alerewellbeing.com.
About Alere
By developing new capabilities in near–‐patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Alere enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Alere’s global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on cardiology, women’s health, infectious disease, oncology and toxicology. Alere is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information regarding Alere please visit http://www.alere.com.
For More Information:
Sharen Ross
Alere Wellbeing
(206) 876-2276
Sharen.Ross@alere.com
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