1. Don’t Let Our Lives Go Up in Smoke
“The Neglected Epidemic”

2. Agenda Who should be here? All of us! What we would like to do today
Consumers, family and close friends
Providers, psychiatrists, administrators, trainers, consultants
What we would like to do today
Hear from you – your thoughts and ideas
Give you information on smoking and smoking cessation
Brainstorm
What we do not want to do
Lecture you, tell you what to do, be critical or judgmental, run the show

3. A Public Health Crisis
Evans, A.E. et al, (2015) Harvard Review of Psychiatry

4. What We Know About Tobacco Use
Higher rates of smoking among people with the most intense behavioral health challenges have led to higher mortality and morbidity – hence, dying 25 years younger
19 diseases directly attributable to tobacco smoking (cardiovascular disease, cancers esp. lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, influenza, and pneumonia)
There are 70 carcinogens found in cigarette smoke

5. What are some myths about tobacco use?
Here is one: nicotine causes cancer
Here is another: people who have serious mental heath problems don’t want to quit smoking
And another: stopping smoking will result in increase in MH symptoms
What other ones have you heard?
Why are these myths a problem?

6. People who have struggled in the public mental health system tend to be heavier smokers and extract more nicotine for each cigarette they smoke. Why do you think members of this community smoke as much as they do?

7. How Can You Tell If Your Smoking is a Problem?

8. Why do you think people have so much trouble reducing or quitting smoking?

9. Where am I?

10. Putting this together
The Decisional Balance Group discussion Flipchart Handout

11. You Get To Decide
DON’T QUIT
QUIT
PROS
CONS

12. Tobacco Use – Becoming Smoke Free
Show CPI consumer tobacco video
Debrief
What did you think?

13. What helps people reduce or quit using tobacco products?
Moving through the stages, treatments that work
Social support groups
Motivational strategies
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Relapse prevention techniques
Mindfulness meditation
Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT’s)
Medications such as Buproprion, Valenicline
Others that have worked for you

14. What would help people become interested in using some of these treatment options? What are some of the barriers that make it hard to access effective smoking cessation treatments such as NRT’s?

15. Where Do We Go From Here?