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Kate Fish (she/her) is the Peer Support Coordinator for Smoke Break, CBRC’s newest tobacco harm reduction program. Kate has also been a Registered Social Worker for 12 years, having worked across British Columbia in direct service, education, and leadership roles related to substance use, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (such as HIV and Hepatitis C), poverty, and the toxic drug crisis.
Growing up in a small coastal community on the north coast of British Columbia, Kate began smoking at age 14. Having been a smoker for a decade before stopping—and being queer—she was on the community advisory committee for the Smoke Break program, contributing her unique perspectives to help guide the development of the program. Now the Peer Support Coordinator of the program, Kate manages referrals and provides a warm welcome when people start the program. She connects them to one of the peer supporters that provide one-on-one and group support to 2S/LGBTQIA+ people looking to quit or reduce their smoking and vaping use. The program also mails nicotine replacement therapy kits to participants, and offers education on how to use them.
“Smoke Break allows 2S/LGBTQIA+ folks to explore their relationship with smoking commercial tobacco or vaping without the pressure to quit,” Kate says. “Quitting is totally on the table, but the program is expansive in that people have the flexibility in how and when they participate, what their goals are, and how they meet them.” The program is non-judgemental and non-coercive, and involves sharing information and options so that people can choose what works best for them to reduce harm and/or to quit. “If someone’s goal is to quit smoking, great! If not, also fine!”
In many traditional smoking cessation programs, the focus and language is almost always around quitting smoking. This works for some people, but not everyone—especially when an intersectional lens is not used. “We’ve heard from folks that if this program was not specifically geared towards 2S/LGBTQIA+ people, they wouldn’t participate,” Kate explains. “When health and social services—like cessation programs—lack 2S/LGBTQIA+ competence and are unsafe, our communities are then disproportionately affected by delayed access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for tobacco-related illnesses.”
Smoke Break is harm reduction by queer people, for queer people. The term “harm reduction” is not often associated with tobacco, and many people assume that it doesn’t support people who want to quit smoking entirely. “It’s seen as a binary—either you’re smoking, or you quit, but that’s not true. There is a grey area where shame and stigma often live.” Kate says.
Kate wants to see a shift in how we talk about nicotine use and harm reduction. “A harm reduction approach to tobacco use asks questions, is curious, and is focused on the individual. Where are you at right now? Where do you want to be? What do you need to get there? It’s about sharing information and options so that people can choose what’s best for them.”
To learn more about Smoke Break, and sign up, please visit mysmokebreak.ca.
Photo: Kate Fish
"Harm reduction is a set of principles that support wellbeing no matter where someone is on the continuum of substance use. It asks ‘where are you at right now, and what do you need?”
