Friday, May 23, 2025
5/23/2025
Rhode Island Tobacco Control Program - The mission of the Rhode Island Department of Health’s (RIDOH) Tobacco Control Program (RITCP) is to promote sustainable and diverse multi-sector partnerships grounded in policy and best and promising practices to protect lives from nicotine addiction, preventable disease, and premature death due to predatory practices and nicotine use. When allocating resources and making data-driven decisions for implementation of interventions, RIDOH utilizes a Health Equity Framework to help prioritize its work. Since its development in 2008, this framework has served as a guide to address health equity for all populations through eliminating health disparities, assuring healthy child development, preventing and controlling disease, preventing disability, and working to make the environment healthy. COMPONENT 1: The RITCP informs policy, systems and environmental (PSE) change strategies that support smoke-free environments and treatment integration, encourage cessation and prevent initiation. The TCP works with federal state, and local partners with a focus on statewide and community disparities. And in partnership with Tobacco Free Rhode Island provides statewide dissemination of tobacco control information to prevention organizations and city, town, and state leaders. The RITCP a) Monitors disparities in health outcomes; b) Innovates, implements and evaluates emerging and best practices to reduce product initiation, and use with and within targeted communities; c) Informs stakeholders’ decisions about PSE strategies to restrict youth and youth adult access to tobacco and emerging products, restrict exposure to second-hand smoke; eliminates smoking in recreational areas, and increases smoke-free campuses (healthcare facilities, colleges, workplaces); d) Builds statewide capacity to leverage resources; implements best practices, and educates on the benefits of PSE changes; e) Provides cessation services for un/underinsured; refers clients to cessation services; builds certified tobacco treatment specialist workforce; and collects, analyzes, and shares data; f) Launches media campaigns to inform about the harms of emerging products and encourage cessation; and g) Assures that Rhode Island investments are informed by data and best practices, and impact health equity. COMPONENT 2: The RITCP will advance in extending statewide tobacco use and dependence treatment support systems to provide seamless delivery of treatment and enhance the effectiveness of the tobacco cessation initiatives with a focus on the target populations, individuals with low socioeconomic status, behavioral health conditions, LGBT, disabilities, and Medicaid recipients, who demonstrate the highest prevalence of tobacco and nicotine use and would benefit most from well‐defined comprehensive tobacco cessation interventions. The RITCP will specifically implement evidence-based treatment interventions and strategies for the targeted population groups, who historically access and utilize the Quitline, local tobacco use dependence, and tobacco cessation health insurance benefits and less frequently. Through collaborations with national, state and local partners, RITCP will identify, develop, and implement the appropriate evidence-based treatment interventions and strategies to: improve Quitline infrastructure and utilize digital technologies, enhance Quitline sustainability through increasing partnerships, expand reach of evidence-based treatment services, conduct strategic efforts to increase awareness and use of quit support services, and utilize media campaigns, leverage local campaign efforts paid and earned social media to promote the availability of the quit supports for all tobacco/nicotine users, to promote quit supports. The RITCP will integrate evaluation strategies and activities into all strategies to improve upon existing work and use data to inform strategic decision making.
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).