For those of you that read Metro you will have already seen this astonishing news on the front page – apparently 10-year-olds are going to be paid to stop smoking. Huh? In actuality, when you look at a bit further into the story under-18s are going to be - well, not paid as much as bribed, with £15 shopping vouchers. And if under-10s approach the service then they too will be eligible for the vouchers.
The scheme is being run by Brighton and Hove NHS Trust and also includes pregnant women, who are offered £5 vouchers for Asda or the Co-Op. A spokesperson for the trust said that “Evidence shows that motivating a young person with a small cash incentive is the push they need to ask for help. If someone stops when they are young, they will feel the benefits immediately and saves the NHS millions of pounds as well as saving lives."
The headlines screaming about all the little chain-smoking children grabbing the cash and running off into a smoky sunset are actually fairly misleading, as only one 10-year-old has approached the service. There have already been similar proposals to offer adults monetary incentives to lose weight.
Nonetheless, the scheme has raised some rather alarming questions about the model we are setting teenagers when it comes to their health. This scheme would seem to approve of the message that cash is a motivating force stronger than self-esteem or self-worth, which might ordinarily be expected to push a teen to quit. Teenagers don’t just follow the leadership of their peers but that of authority figures such as doctors and teachers, and this is authorities leading them down a path ruled by material gain rather than an individual’s life choices. I personally think that encouraging a mercenary approach to health just when someone is starting to make independent decisions about their wellbeing sets them on a troubling path.