Oregon Launches Groundbreaking Tobacco Freedom Summit
Recognizing the importance of equal access to smoking cessation services for all smokers, Oregon leaders are taking major steps to improve services for behavioral health consumers who smoke. They convened a group Oct. 30 in the capital, Salem, to tackle smoking issues during the first consumer-driven Tobacco Freedom Summit. A broad range of stakeholders, including consumer advocates, leaders from Department of Health Services Addictions and Mental Health, Department of Health Services Public Health Division, Oregon State Hospital, VA Medical Center and the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center created an action plan replete with new strategies to improve access to and participation in tobacco cessation treatment programs.
Working as a team facilitated by Oregon-based consultant Dawn Robbins, the partners left the summit with action items to implement within their organizations and beyond. The partnership agreed upon an over-arching, measurable goal to reduce tobacco use disparity by 10% within 5 years.
A shocking 7,000 Oregonians die each year from smoking and an additional 800 from second-hand smoke, costing the state $2.2 billion annually in health care, according to state records. Tobacco dependence, a multifaceted illness with neurobiological, psychological, social, economic, and cultural underpinnings, hits some Oregonians harder than others. It is epidemic among people suffering from mental illness or substance use disorders .
- 75% of those with either addictions or mental illness smoke compared to 21% in the general population.
- Persons with mental illness smoke nearly half of all cigarettes produced—and are only half as likely to quit.
- Half of the deaths of persons with serious mental illness are due to smoking-related illness
By bringing the right activists together, Oregon plans to improve this picture. Together as partners, state leaders are making a long term difference in the health of Oregonians.
For more information on the Tobacco Freedom Partnership contact
Meghan Caughey M.A., M.F.A.
Peer Wellness Coordinator
Benton County Health Services
541.766-6107
meghan.caughey@co.benton.or.us
Patient Centered Medical Home Provides Opportunity to Better Address Tobacco Dependence
Family medicine practices are beginning to transform themselves from condition- and treatment-centered practices to patient-centered medical homes. This new model of care is based on a continuous relationship between the patient, the physician, and a patient care team, in which the team takes collective responsibility for the patient's ongoing care.
A team-based model of care provides new opportunities to address tobacco dependence. “In the current healthcare climate, where reimbursement schedules favor short office visits, the doctor can’t do it all,” says Donald Pine, M.D. a family physician and a member of the American Academy of Family Physician’s (AAFP) tobacco cessation advisory committee. “Administrative staff, medical assistants and nurses can all fulfill roles in tobacco dependence treatment.”
The AAFP encourages its members and their practice teams to Ask all patients about tobacco use, then to Act to help them quit. This easy-to-remember approach, Ask and Act, provides the opportunity for every member of a practice team to intervene at every visit. Interventions can be tailored to a specific patient based on his or her willingness to quit, as well as to the structure of the practice and each team member’s knowledge and skill level.
“Family physicians are catching on that Ask and Act is a recognized standard of care,” says family physician Saria Carter Saccocio, MD. “With education and training of physicians, we are seeing the impact.”
The 2008 update of the USPHS guideline recognizes Ask and Act as a format to deliver brief tobacco cessation interventions.
Through the Ask and Act program, supported by the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, dozens of resources for family physicians and their practice teams have been developed and distributed, including more than 500,000 quitline referral cards.
In 2008, the AAFP added a mental health component to its resources and training programs to ensure that family physicians are aware of evidence-based treatment for this population. The majority of patients with mental health issues initially seek care from their primary care physician, and the AAFP and its members recognize the importance of helping these patients quit smoking.
For more information on Ask and Act, go to www.askandact.org.
Smoke-free Air laws Reduce the Risk of Heart Attacks Associated With Secondhand Smoke
A new report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) shows that smoke-free air workplace policies reduce the risk of heart attacks and heart disease associated with secondhand smoke exposure.
The report concludes that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause acute coronary events, such as heart attacks and summarizes evidence that suggests that even brief secondhand smoke exposure might trigger a heart attack.
More than 40% of the American public is protected by comprehensive smoke-free air workplace laws that include all workplaces, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. By contrast, in States like Indiana approximately 8% of Hoosiers are protected by comprehensive smoke-free air workplace laws.
In its report, the IOM committee conducted a comprehensive review of published and unpublished data and testimony on the relationship between secondhand smoke and short-term and long-term heart problems. The review looked at 11 studies that evaluated the effects of smoke-free workplace laws on heart attack rates.
The Indiana University (IU) study was one of two studies in the IOM report to examine the effect of public smoking laws on heart attacks among non-smokers. The IU study compared the reduction of heart attacks in Monroe County following a comprehensive smoke-free air law to Delaware County which did not have any law at the time. Monroe County saw a 59% net decrease in the number of nonsmoking patient admissions for acute heart attacks after the smoke-free air law was enforced.
The IOM committee of scientific experts reached the following conclusions:
- There is a causal relationship between smoking bans and decreases in acute coronary events.
- The evidence is consistent with a causal relationship between secondhand smoke exposure and acute coronary events.
- It is biologically plausible for a relatively brief exposure to secondhand smoke to precipitate an acute coronary event. According to the report, experimental studies have found that secondhand smoke exposure causes adverse changes in the cardiovascular system that increases the risk of a heart attack.
Cardiovascular disease is a major public health concern. Study results consistently indicate that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 25 - 30%.
For more information on the full IOM study visit www.iom.edu/secondhandsmokecveffects.
For more information on the Indiana University study, contact David Ayers ITPC Media Team (317) 554-6357 or (317) 502-8536.
Download the Second Hand Smoke IOM Report Brief
Want to learn more about taking your facility smoke-free? Show your commitment to health by becoming and remaining tobacco-free?
Click on the links below for more information:
- Tobacco-free Living in Psychiatric Settings NASMHPD Toolkit
- Destination Tobacco-Free: A Practical Tool for Hospitals and Health Systems
- A toolkit for implementing smoke-free Laws
- Ending the Tobacco Problem: Resources for Local Action