Proactive Outreach for Smoking Treatment (POST)

Tobacco use disorder is a chronic disease. This is particularly true for people living with mental illness, who are more likely to smoke and make more unsuccessful quit attempts than those without. The current study is designed to test a package of two chronic disease management strategies to treatment tobacco in community mental health centers: regular provider interventions during routine mental healthcare visits, and proactive outreach by community mental health center staff to offer connections to tobacco cessation treatment. 50 patients at a community mental health center will receive provider intervention at their regular visits as well as 3 outreach calls over 9 months from trained staff to offer to connect them with stop smoking treatment. The investigators will measure the effect of these interventions on tobacco use over the next year.

BACKGROUND: The US Public Health Service (USPHS) designated tobacco dependence as a chronic disease. This is especially true for smokers with serious mental illness (SMI) who make more cessation attempts and are less successful sustaining long-term abstinence than the general population. There is a significant health disparity wherein individuals with SMI have a higher tobacco use prevalence and a greater risk for tobacco-related mortality than the general population. Chronic care models suggest chronic disease management requires a multidisciplinary care team to assess tobacco use, administer treatment, support patient self-management, and monitor progress. Proactive telephone outreach to smokers and brief provider interventions are two effective chronic disease management strategies. Community based mental health centers (CMHCs) are a primary treatment access point for many smokers with SMI. However, rates of intervention with smoking by CMHC providers are low. In order to implement the chronic care model for tobacco dependence for CMHCs, comprehensive implementation strategies are needed. OBJECTIVE: to conduct a feasibility pilot trial to adapt an implementation strategy developed by the SAMHSA-funded network of Addiction Technology Transfer Centers (ATTCs) to integrate a proactive, chronic care model of tobacco cessation treatment into CMHCs. AIM: To conduct a pilot trial to assess the feasibility, acceptability and initial effectiveness of the implementation strategy. DESIGN: The investigators will conduct a pilot hybrid type 2 implementation-effectiveness trial in 3 CMHCs (N=50 patients; 96-130 providers). The investigators will conduct 2 baseline assessments (3 months apart) and outcomes will be assessed at 3, 6, and 12-months post implementation. Outcomes include feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness of the implementation strategy on tobacco cessation treatment utilization (counseling and medication) and patient effectiveness on tobacco cessation (CO confirmed 7-day point prevalence abstinence). SIGNIFICANCE: An effective implementation strategy for tobacco cessation treatment in CMHCs, a widespread model of care delivery, would have enormous public health impact.

Quarterly brief provider interventions about tobacco and 3 quarterly proactive outreach calls to connect patients to telephone cessation counseling and facilitate obtaining cessation medication.

Inclusion Criteria: daily cigarettes smokers (smoking >25 days/month) English speaking patient in one of the two community mental health center study sites. Exclusion Criteria: cognitive impairment judged by community mental health center staff as unable to participate in research no access to a telephone no mailing address.

Within 18 months of study completion, we will make completely de-identified data (i.e., data that has been cleaned of all 18 types of HIPAA identifiers) datasets available to interested investigators who submit a written request to the PI. The only contingency on the use of the data will be that ethical guidelines be followed (e.g., only individuals who have completed a research ethics training course will have access to the data, the data will be stored securely).