SriLanka, June 14 -- The Ministry of Health and Mass Media has launched a series of training programmes to equip healthcare workers with psychological intervention techniques aimed at preventing tobacco use and helping users quit smoking.

Director of the Non-Communicable Diseases Unit, Dr. Sreeni Alahapperuma, said the initiative focuses on the "Brief Intervention" psychological approach, which enables health personnel to promote behavioural change among tobacco users through short counselling sessions.

She explained that the method is designed to raise awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco use within a few minutes and encourage individuals to reduce or completely stop the habit.

The first workshop under the programme is schedule...