Open AccessFrom the Sidelines to the Frontline: How the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Embraced Smoking Cessation
Author(s) -
Lekshmi Santhosh,
Margaret Meriwether,
Catherine Saucedo,
Reason S Reyes,
Christine Cheng,
Brian Clark,
Doug Tipperman,
Steven A. Schroeder
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2013.301852
Subject(s) - smoking cessation , general partnership , mental health , substance abuse , administration (probate law) , summit , substance abuse prevention , medicine , psychiatry , public health , mental illness , nursing , political science , pathology , physical geography , law , geography
Smoking is a major contributor to premature mortality among people with mental illness and substance abuse. Historically, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) did not include smoking cessation in its mission. We describe the development of a unique partnership between SAMHSA and the University of California, San Francisco's Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. Starting with an educational summit in Virginia in 2007, it progressed to a jointly sponsored "100 Pioneers for Smoking Cessation" campaign that provided grants and technical assistance to organizations promoting cessation. By 2013, the partnership established 7 "Leadership Academies," state-level multidisciplinary collaboratives of organizations focused on cessation. This academic-public partnership increased tobacco quit attempts, improved collaboration across multiple agencies, and raised awareness about tobacco use in vulnerable populations.