VA’s Stay Quit Coach app helped VA employee quit smoking

When she needed to quit smoking in 2020, Joni Stalnaker turned to VA’s Stay Quit Coach app. The home telehealth program support assistant at Richmond VA said she immediately found the app user-friendly and its motivation tactics very effective.

With Stay Quit Coach, you can record information such as your smoking triggers, goals for your journey and more. It also provides positive messages to help keep you moving through your journey despite setbacks.

Using the app helped Stalnaker relate to other Veterans and VA staff who are trying to quit smoking. And she recommends the app for anyone trying to quit.

Joni Stalnaker

A smoke-free campus

When her VA facility became a smoke-free campus in 2020, Stalnaker knew she had to find a motivating way to quit smoking. She received many tools and resources through emails and publications, but Stay Quit Coach caught her eye.

“My advice would be to download it and give it a try. Even if you have a setback, every day is a new day to make a change,” she said. “If you had a setback, it would still give you a positive response. It would say something along the lines of ‘you can get back on track’ and ‘you will have been smoke-free for this long.’”

The app also tracks how much money you’re saving by not smoking. This feature was a huge motivator for Stalnaker in her journey.

“It will tell you how much money you saved every day. When you’re going into the store and you grab your coffee and cigarettes and go, you don’t think about it as much,” she added.

Connecting with Veterans

Stalnaker has served Veterans at VA for five years and is on the Richmond Virtual Health Resource Center team. She helps Veterans explore the various VA apps that may be best suited for their care.

Her experience with Stay Quit Coach has helped her connect with Veterans on a more personal level. “It gives you that connection or that experience that you can share with a Veteran and say, ‘No, it really does work,’ versus saying, ‘Well, I heard it does’ or ‘People say it does.’ You’re that people.”

Stalnaker’s use of Stay Quit Coach and her work with Veterans at Richmond VA motivates her to keep doing the work she does. “It brings a sense of unity and community that everybody can use it. It’s not just for employees or just for Veterans or just for caregivers.”

For more information about Stay Quit Coach and other VA apps, visit the VA App Store.