For Behavioral Health Professionals

For Behavioral Health Professionals

Behavioral health professionals can make a significant impact on patients who are smokers. Even brief advice and encouragement from a behavioral health professional can help smokers quit successfully.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why do behavioral health consumers need smoking cessation support?

  • People with behavioral health conditions have a right to wellness and recovery, including being free from nicotine addiction.
  • Smoking rates among those with behavioral health conditions are significantly higher than the general population. In Philadelphia, 41 percent of residents with behavioral health conditions are smokers and 69 percent of those with a history of substance abuse are smokers.
  • People with severe behavioral health problems live, on average, 25 years fewer than those without such conditions. Much of this disparity is due to cardiovascular disease and smoking.
  • Tobacco use adversely affects all aspects of behavioral health: wellness, resilience, and recovery.
  • People in behavioral health settings are less likely to be told about the negative health effects of smoking; less likely to be advised to quit; less likely to be offered help with quitting; and less likely to be provided access to smoke-free treatment settings.

What is public health detailing, and how can it help in behavioral health settings?

Public health detailing is an effective method of reaching providers to deliver key prevention messages, feasible for public health agencies and acceptable to practices. For example, the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health’s SmokeFree Philly’s detailing program has reached over 200 physicians and increased prescription writing and referrals to the PA Quitline among 400 physicians since its inception. This translates to more successful quit attempts by approximately 200,000 Philadelphia smokers.

The expanded detailing program to behavioral health providers seeks to provide:

  • Treatment decision supports
  • Safe and effective use of FDA-approved pharmacotherapies
  • How to effectively counsel and follow-up with consumers who use tobacco
  • Making referrals to key cessation resources, prescribing pharmacotherapies
  • Relevant articles on providing tobacco treatment for behavioral health populations
  • Online continuing medical education
  • Addressing biases and frequently asked questions that can present a barrier to offering consistent tobacco treatment

To date, over 167 diverse behavioral health professionals across seven Community Behavioral Health agencies have been detailed through the initiative. Of those staff detailed:

  • 94 percent found the information to be very useful
  • 88 percent of staff identified a specific change that they could make to improve tobacco dependence treatment at their agency

How can I talk to my patients about their tobacco use?

Please visit Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation.

Rx for Change is a comprehensive, turn-key, tobacco cessation training program that equips health professional students and licensed clinicians with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills for assisting patients with quitting.   Rx for Change was developed by University of California San Francisco.

Teaching strategies are varied and include selected readings, lecture with animated PowerPoint slides, videotape (an introductory segment, trigger tapes, counseling sessions), and role playing with case scenarios.

Tailored versions are available for behavioral health providers and mental health peer counselors.

Free registration is required for access to program materials.

Download extended list of FAQs for providers and consumers

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Resources

Webinars

Tobacco Awareness and Tobacco Recovery Groups

Organizational Model

Quit smoking resources for consumers and staff

Training

Master Tobacco Treatment Specialist: Integration of Tobacco Use Treatment Into Healthcare

Integration of Tobacco Use Treatment into Healthcare is a five-day, highly interactive development course for working healthcare professionals, designed to help providers develop directorship-level skills in tobacco dependence treatment.

The course is appropriate for healthcare providers from disciplines with both direct and indirect patient care responsibility. The syllabus is designed to be applicable to the needs of most professionals involved in the treatment of tobacco dependence, including but not limited to:

  • Physicians
  • Advanced Practice Nurses
  • Physician Assistants
  • Psychologists
  • Nurses
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Community Educators
  • Health System Administrators
  • Insurance Industry Executives
  • Public Health Officials

Carbon monoxide meters

Key articles & reports

Toolkits

Tobacco Awareness and Education Events

Calendar of national events (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

For local events, go to HealthyMindsPhilly.org.

Curricula

Learning About Healthy Living
The Learning About Healthy Living treatment manual provides a format to address tobacco for smokers with a serious mental illness who are either prepared to quit smoking or who are simply contemplating quitting in the future.

Quit Smoking Comfortably
The Quit Smoking Comfortably curriculum provides a framework for providing high-quality, evidence-based, longitudinal care to tobacco-dependent consumers, in a manner that is adaptable to the individual’s needs, and accessible to all segments of the population.

CHOICES
CHOICES employs mental health consumers, called Consumer Tobacco Advocates, to deliver the vital message to smokers with mental illness that addressing tobacco is important and to motivate them to seek treatment.

The Consumer Tobacco Advocates provide their peers with information about the consequences of smoking, issues regarding smoking and mental illness, and options available to make quitting easier.

Nicotine Anonymous (NA)
Nicotine Anonymous is a nonprofit 12-step fellowship of men and women helping each other live nicotine-free lives. Check website for local meetings.

Continuing education units (CEU) and continuing medical education (CME)

Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation
Rx for Change is a comprehensive, turn-key, tobacco cessation training program that equips health professional students and licensed clinicians with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills for assisting patients with quitting.   Rx for Change was developed by University of California San Francisco.

Teaching strategies are varied and include selected readings, lecture with animated PowerPoint slides, videotape (an introductory segment, trigger tapes, counseling sessions), and role playing with case scenarios.

Tailored versions are available for behavioral health providers and mental health peer counselors

Tobacco treatment and electronic health records

Integrating Tobacco Treatment Into Electronic Health Records

Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: A Systems Approach

Sample policies, procedures and communications

Sample tobacco-free signage

OTHER HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Physicians, nurses and other health professionals can make a significant impact on patients who are smokers. Even brief advice and encouragement from a health professional can help smokers quit successfully. Click here for other cessation resources for health professionals.

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