The Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients (STOP) program is a provincial initiative led by the INTREPID Lab (formerly Nicotine Dependence Service) within the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health. STOP aims to remove barriers to accessing treatment for tobacco and nicotine dependence by offering cost-free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to individuals interested in quitting.
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new barriers to accessing effective treatment as many healthcare providers, including those who were implementing the STOP program in their clinic, were redeployed to support pandemic response efforts. In addition, the shift from in-person to virtual care created barriers to providing cessation treatment. In an effort to reduce the burden on healthcare providers, improve access to cessation treatment across the province, and meet the needs of people who wanted to quit, the INTREPID Lab developed an innovative, direct-to-patient, smoking cessation treatment program as an adaptation of STOP: “STOP on the Net (SOTN)”. SOTN is a completely virtual program offering cessation support for Ontarians (18+) by providing 8-weeks of free NRT (nicotine patch and choice of gum or lozenges) mailed directly to the participant’s address, with no healthcare provider intervention required.
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