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National Campaign Shows Real Dangers of Tobacco Use

May 6th, 2013

Continuing with the success of last year’s landmark national tobacco education campaign- the CDC is launching “Tips from Former Smokers” which will run in Arizona through the end of June.  The media campaign showcases the real and devastating effects of smoking & secondhand smoke.  The ads feature people with smoking-related health conditions and candidly describe the impact of tobacco and the benefits of quitting. 

The national campaign from CDC is a great supplement to our statewide efforts to help people quit smoking and preventing young people from starting.  We operate the widely successful ASHLine, which offers free evidence-based cessation services and nicotine replacement therapies for all Arizonans. The ASHLine has a 32% quit rate, which means that we’re helping more people every day to kick the habit. 

The CDCs ad’s encourage folks to call 1-800-QUITNOW- which in AZ will roll up directly to our ASHLine (1.800.55.66.222) helping even more Arizonans find local resources to help Arizonans kick the habit.

 

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The Great American Smokeout

November 15th, 2012

Today is the 37th Annual Great American Smokeout®. Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the annual event challenges smokers to start the quit process by joining thousands of other Americans in quitting for the day. The thought being – if you can quit for a day, you can quit for life.
Across the state the Arizona Smokers Helpline – or ASHLine – is highlighting the success of the free quit coach service. Serving Arizona for nearly 15 years, ASHLine combines the support of a quit coach with nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) such as the patch, gum, lozenge or medication to help improve a tobacco users change of quitting and staying quit. ASHLine boasts a 40 percent quit rate which is among the leaders of quitlines nationally.  Contact ASHLine online or on the phone at 1-800-55-66-222.

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Tobacco Use & the Target Market

November 15th, 2012

One of the things you learn in business school is the importance of using the concept of a “target market” as a core of your business marketing plan.  That’s what we do when it comes to tobacco cessation.  We examine our tobacco surveillance data and look at demographic patterns for target populations and look for the leverage points to develop our interventions.  Since 50% of tobacco products are purchased by folks with a mental illness and/or chronic disease- this demographic is a key focus of our tobacco prevention strategies. 

We’ve been working hard for the last 3 years to make inroads into this target population with some pretty good success.  Our folks in the Division of Behavioral health and our Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease and ASHLine have trained clinical behavioral health staff on how to get folks into smoking cessation (quit) services-  establishing systemic change within the behavioral health system for cessation services- moving Arizona toward being tobacco free.  This involves assessing every single patient at every single visit in our behavioral health system for tobacco use and providing them the opportunity to be referred for tobacco cessation coaching.  Since our initial efforts 3 years ago- ASHLine referrals from behavioral health locations have skyrocketed.  

The ASHLine referral development team is focusing training new nurse practitioners at Magellan’s Integrated Home Health on ASHLine Ask, Advice, Refer protocol & nicotine replacement therapy prescription guidelines.  Additionally, our Tobacco and Chronic Disease team submitted a manuscript to the CDC’s online journal Preventing Chronic Disease which describes the success of our interventions and illustrating how the behavioral health population is using cessation services and quitting tobacco at the same rate as the general population.

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CDC Kicks Off New Smoking Intervention Campaign Today

March 19th, 2012

The CDC is kicking off a new national smoking cessation campaign today called “Tips from Former Smokers”.  The new tobacco education campaign will begin airing today and will run nationally for 12 weeks.  Ads include television, radio, billboard, magazine, newspaper, theater, and online placements. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other channels will help spread the campaign’s message more broadly, particularly among younger audiences. 

The “Tips from Former Smokers” campaign features real people suffering as a result of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.  Most of them were diagnosed with smoking-related illnesses when they were relatively young—many in their 30s and 40s, and one at only 18.  Their stories send a powerful message: Quit smoking now. Or better yet—don’t start.   To view the ads, please visit the campaign’s website and look under “Real Stories.” 

A couple of months ago we expanded our arsenal of resources to help smokers quit tobacco with the addition of the Call it Quits app which is also on our Facebook page.  The Call It Quits app on Facebook is another free tool brought to you by the ASHLine to help smokers win their battle against tobacco. The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, has been helping Arizonans quit for more than 15 years-and has a 40% quit rate at six months.

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What’s a GASO?

November 17th, 2011

Today is the Great American Smoke Out – started by the American Cancer Society to encourage smokers to quit, even if it is just for one day.  Arizona is doing very well compared to the rest of the country when you talk about stopping smoking.  Our state is down to 16% of the adult population that smokes – the national average is 21%.  But those that are left are the most addicted – so we need to help them any way we can.

The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline is expanding its arsenal of resources to help smokers quit tobacco with the addition of the Call It Quits app.  The app debuted on ASHLine’s Facebook page this week and will soon be introduced as an iPhone app.

Support from friends and family are essential and things like nicotine replacement medication or patches can help make the difference between success and failure when quitting smoking.  People in Arizona can tap into free telephone quit coaching through the ASHLine at 1-800-55-66-222 and free online quit coaching services via WebQuit™ at www.ASHLine.org. The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline has one of the best quit rates in the country and has been helping people for 15 years.

Business owners can help too – take a look at your health plans and see if they support your employees who want to quit. It can be a good investment – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates comprehensive smoking-cessation benefits cost between $1.20 and $4.80 per person per year, miniscule when compared with the $1,623-per-smoker per year in excess medical expenditures.

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Free CME program for behavioral health providers on tobacco cessation

October 10th, 2011

Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman, and the College of Public Health will present a free CME conference “Evidence-based Interventions for Tobacco Cessation in Populations with Mental Illness Challenges,” Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. to behavioral health providers. The conference will take place at the Fiesta Resort Conference Center (2100 S. Priest Dr., Tempe, AZ 85282) and teleconference will take place in Tucson at Community Partnership of Southern Arizona (2502 N. Dodge Blvd., Ste. 130, Tucson, AZ 85716).

The purpose of this CME activity is to increase awareness of the effectiveness and benefits of using a quitline for individuals who want to quit tobacco use, and to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to assess and treat tobacco dependence in smokers with co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders.

Please register online by Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, by clicking on the following link: REGISTER NOW. For additional information or questions, please contact: Shannon Vaffis, MPH, assistant director, community relations & referral, Arizona Smokers’ Helpline at (520) 320-6818 or vaffis@email.arizona.edu. Click here for conference information, including agenda and learning objectives.

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Behavioral Health Kicking the Habit

September 13th, 2011

For the past 16 months, our folks in the Division of Behavioral health and our Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease and ASHline have been working to train clinical behavioral health staff in Maricopa and Pima Counties on how to get folks into smoking cessation (quit) services.  The overall goal of this collaboration was to establish a systemic change within the behavioral health system for cessation services and to move Arizona toward being tobacco free!   This involves assessing every single patient at every single visit for tobacco use and providing them the opportunity to be referred for tobacco cessation counseling.

The trend is good.  Our latest data suggests that nearly 10% of all referrals came from our Regional Behavioral Health Authorities.  Here’s the kicker- of those referred, nearly 50% are enrolling for ongoing cessation counseling, which exceeds the enrollment rate of the overall population!  This is truly wonderful.  Most recently, Magellan has officially implemented referral linkages to ASHLine in their electronic health record system and will begin to roll out communication/training to the clinics immediately- allowing case managers and medical staff to easily access the referral form for each client they see while going completely electronic.  Our joint success in this venture, which is far ahead of the curve for integrating behavioral health and tobacco control, will continue to capture the attention of our partners on the national level.

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Encouraging Trends in New Bi-annual Tobacco Prevention Report

July 12th, 2011

Part of the authorizing statute for our tobacco prevention programs includes a requirement that we develop a bi-annual report of our progress and activities.  Just two years ago, we reported that we were shifting to an “evidence-based” approach to our prevention activities.  In other words, we shifted our intervention strategies to focus on approaches that have been statistically proven to work.  This year’s report shows that our shift in approach clearly paid dividends.

Our newly published bi-annual report demonstrates that Arizona has made great strides in several important areas of tobacco control. We’re now ranked in the “Best Ten” of several major categories including:  lowest exposure to secondhand smoke in the home and workplace, lowest tobacco use among pregnant women, biggest drop in overall tobacco use, biggest drop in heavy tobacco use among youth, low tobacco use among women, and low overall tobacco use (the 2010 smoking rate is now just 13.5% percent in AZ).

More Arizonans are using nicotine replacement therapies, as evidenced in a 42% jump in nicotine replacement use among AHCCCS members (we pay for this using our tobacco prevention funds). Over the last 2 years we’ve increased the number of Arizonans using the ASHLine by 300%, and a nation-leading 6% of active tobacco users in AZ called on our quitline to get help.  More people are getting real help via the Internet, and are being linked to successful programs by their doctors.  We’ll continue to press ahead with this evidenced based approach over the coming year.

Well done team!

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Encouraging Trends in New Bi-annual Tobacco Prevention Report

July 11th, 2011

Part of the authorizing statute for our tobacco prevention programs includes a requirement that we develop a bi-annual report of our progress and activities.  Just two years ago, we reported that we were shifting to an “evidence-based” approach to our prevention activities.  In other words- we shifted our intervention strategies to focus on approaches that have been statistically proven to work.  This year’s report shows that our shift in approach clearly paid dividends. 

 Our newly published bi-annual report demonstrates that Arizona has made great strides in several important areas of tobacco control. We’re now ranked in the “Best Ten” of several major categories, including:  lowest exposure to secondhand smoke in the home and workplace, lowest tobacco use among pregnant women, biggest drop in overall tobacco use, biggest drop in heavy tobacco use among youth, low tobacco use among women, and low overall tobacco use (the 2010 smoking rate is now just 13.5% percent in AZ).

 More Arizonans are using nicotine replacement therapies, as evidenced in a 42% jump in nicotine replacement use among AHCCCS members (we pay for this using our tobacco prevention funds). Over the last 2 years we’ve increased the number of Arizonans using the ASHLine by 300%; and a nation-leading 6% of active tobacco users in AZ called on our quitline to get help.  More people are getting real help via the Internet, and are being linked to successful programs by their doctors.  We’ll continue to press ahead with this evidenced based approach over the coming year.  Well done team!

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New Cigarette Warning Labels launched today

June 21st, 2011

Today the FDA released the new, graphic warning labels that will be on cigarette packs.  The labels educate smokers and others, including kids, about the dangers of tobacco use and encourage smokers to quit.  Using this proven techique, the U.S. joins 43 other countries that already require pictures or images on cigarette packs.

The warning labels encourage smokers to try to quit and list a national phone number (1-800-QUITNOW) When smokers call that national number from an Arizona area code, they’ll be directed to our own Arizona Smokers’ Helpline (ASHLine). For free help to quit, call ASHLine at 1-800-55-66-222.

For more information from the FDA visit:  http://www.fda.gov/cigarettewarnings. For more information on the ASHLine visit www.ashline.org.

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