Helping Smokers Quit: The Smoking Cessation Leadership Center Engages Behavioral Health by Challenging Old Myths and Traditions.

Smoking is much more common among persons with behavioral health conditions (mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders). Persons with these disorders are more likely to die from smoking-related causes than any other reason. Studies have shown that stopping smoking can improve mental health function, as well as improve outcomes for substance use disorders. Yet, for a variety of reasons, smoking cessation has not been integrated into the treatment of behavioral health conditions, and in many instances tobacco use was not only condoned but encouraged. Beginning in 2007, the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) began engaging relevant agencies in an attempt to stimulate more vigorous smoking cessation activities. Partners included the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, advocacy organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, and clinical groups such as the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, National Council on Behavioral Health, and National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. A signature program featured 16 individual state summits involving agencies and groups from multiple sectors, all aiming to lower smoking rates in behavioral health populations. These activities mark an evolving culture change within behavioral health.

Helping Smokers Quit: New Partners and New Strategies from the University of California, San Francisco Smoking Cessation Leadership Center.

The Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) was established in 2003 to increase the rate of smoking cessation attempts and the likelihood those efforts would succeed. Although smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death and disability, clinicians underperform in smoking cessation. Furthermore, many clinical organizations, governmental agencies, and advocacy groups put little effort into smoking cessation. Initially targeted at increasing the efforts of primary care physicians, SCLC efforts expanded to include many other medical and non-physician disciplines, ultimately engaging 21 separate specialties. Most clinicians and their organizations are daunted by efforts required to become cessation experts. A compromise solution, Ask, Advise, Refer (to telephone quitlines), was crafted. SCLC also stimulated smoking cessation projects in governmental, not-for-profit, and industry groups, including the Veterans Administration, the Health Resources Services Administration, Los Angeles County, and the Joint Commission. SCLC helped CVS pharmacies to stop selling tobacco products and other pharmacies to increase smoking cessation efforts, provided multiple educational offerings, and distributed $6.4 million in industry-supported smoking cessation grants to 55 organizations plus $4 million in direct SCLC grants. Nevertheless, smoking still causes 540,000 annual deaths in the US. SCLC's work in the field of behavioral health is described in a companion article.