Wednesday, April 24, 2024
4/24/2024
The Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) at UCSF, proposes to expand and improve its established model of State Leadership Academies by creating a National Center of Excellence for Tobacco-Free Recovery (NCTFR). Employing multiple educational and policy activities, NCTFR will address the realities that persons with behavioral health (BH) conditions have high rates of smoking—double or triple the rate of the general population--and also suffer disproportionately from the hazards of tobacco, dying 10 years earlier. Drawing on 15 years of work with SAMHSA and other groups, NCTFR will: promote adoption of tobacco-free behavioral health facilities and grounds; integrate evidence-based tobacco cessation treatment into behavioral health (BH) and primary care settings; and educate BH and primary care providers on effective evidence-based tobacco cessation activities, focusing on persons with serious mental illness and co-occurring disorders. NCTFR will employ 5 core activities: 1) Hold two state leadership academies annually in which leaders of relevant state governmental, clinical, health insurance sector, and advocacy organizations meet to establish a current baseline, set smoking reduction targets, and create concrete action and impact measurement plans; 2) Provide ongoing technical assistance and oversight to state and academy participants; 3) Conduct webinars on tobacco use, cessation, implementation, and tobacco-free policies marketed through various partners including the National Council for Behavioral Health; 4) Disseminate relevant information on smoking cessation research, implementation strategies for tobacco-free facilities, opportunities for training, and other salient topics through its website, listserv, social media, publications in medical journals, clinical society newsletters, and profession conference presentations; and 5) Maintain an active website and “implementation hub” that is accessible, topical, and a go-to site for administrators, clinicians and policy-makers. Progress for each core activity will be tracked through quantitative and qualitative measures including surveys, documentation reviews, and semi-structured interviews. Outcomes will include changes in smoking rates for BH populations plus progress toward stipulated process outcomes such as tobacco-free facilities, enhanced cessation coverage by insurers, and proportion of staff competent to provide cessation services. NCTFR will directly serve state and governmental representatives, BH and primary care administrators and clinicians, health insurers, and advocacy organizations. Based on our past experiences, we estimate direct Leadership Academy participation to include 400 persons representing tens of thousands of employees. Through webinars and educational activities, NCTFR will also serve health care providers, stakeholders, and the general public. Based on prior webinar registration, we estimate 35,000 clinicians and administrators will be reached over 5 years. NCTFR will thus serve as a national leader to drive down smoking rates and the harm from tobacco use among the estimated 22 million behavioral health consumers who smoke, translating up to 1 million potential premature deaths averted.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
