Division of Addiction Psychiatry Newsroom
NEWS RELEASE
Date:February 5, 2008
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Physician
Advocates for Eliminating Tobacco Use in Mental Health Facilities
-- Commentary in Journal of American Medical Association --
New Brunswick, NJ – “The United States public mental health system must address the issue of tobacco use in psychiatric hospitals,” urges Jill Williams, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and at UMDNJ-School of Public Health, in the February 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In the commentary, Dr. Williams implores mental health advocates to support a move toward tobacco-free hospital policies to create a healthy environment and improved behavioral outcomes for patients.
“Programs that treat behavioral health problems such as depression or schizophrenia are the only remaining sector of health care that fail to systematically help patients quit smoking,” Dr. Williams says.
In her commentary, Dr. Williams cites evidence of poor cardiovascular health and death in mental health patients that is on average 25 years earlier than the general population. In addition to improving the patient’s physical health, tobacco dependence treatment further supports a patient’s success toward full mental recovery. Dr. Williams emphasizes that mental health advocates must demand increased access to tobacco dependence treatment, to ensure that patients receive safe alternatives to nicotine withdrawal.
Other advantages of eliminating tobacco use are fewer behavioral problems and less violence. Dr. Williams recognizes that opposition to eliminating tobacco use may result from fear of additional behavioral concerns in patients. However, she notes evidence to the contrary, reporting that faculty and staff in tobacco-free facilities actually spend less time in the bartering and control of tobacco products, thereby reducing incidents of conflict and consequently, providing additional and more effective treatment time.
Dr. Williams also points to the additional stigma smoking causes mental health patients, who are already ostracized from general society due to their illnesses. “Stigma is a resonating issue as the mental health community collectively and individually strives for greater community acceptance and integrations of individuals with mental illnesses,” says Dr. Williams. “Advocacy that aims to protect smoking can further marginalize and stigmatize smokers with mental illness who are looking to succeed in securing housing and employment.”
Ultimately, eliminating tobacco use is in line with national trends that call for mental health care to be more oriented toward wellness and recovery. Dr. Williams concludes, “Patients with mental illnesses deserve the same protection from tobacco exposure that benefits the rest of the public.”
Dr. Williams, of Clinton, NJ, serves as the director of the division of Addiction Psychiatry and director of Mental Health Tobacco Services at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She also is affiliated with the UMDNJ-School of Public Health Tobacco Dependence Program in New Brunswick and a member of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. She is a consultant to the New Jersey State Psychiatric Hospitals on Addressing Tobacco, which is funded by the New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services through UMDNJ-University Behavioral Healthcare.
Dr. Williams conducts research on smokers with serious mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Her research examines differences in nicotine intake, cigarette puffing and nicotine craving in individuals with schizophrenia in hopes that these discoveries will lead to better treatments in the future. She has received research funding from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Legacy Foundation.
Press Release
May 31, 2007
Contact: Terri Guess
Phone: (973) 972-5000
guesstp@umdnj.edu
UMDNJ Manual Designed to Help the Mentally Ill to be Distributed Nationally
Mental health professionals will use to help patients quit smoking
NEW BRUNSWICK — Mental health professionals treating nicotine addicted mental illness patients will now have access to a manual offering a special group treatment intervention approach to stem tobacco use and dependence. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is distributing nationally Learning About Healthy Living, a wellness publication funded by the New Jersey State Division of Mental Health Services.
to read more, click here
Mental Health America Honors CHOICES
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (June 11, 2007) — The CHOICES program was honored at the Closing Night Dinner of the Mental Health America Annual Meeting, Bringing Wellness Home, in Washington D.C. on June 9, 2007. CHOICES is a consumer-driven initiative that strives to meet the needs of smokers with mental illnesses by increasing awareness of the importance of addressing tobacco use and by creating a strong peer support network that encourages mental health consumers to make a positive healthy lifestyle change by addressing smoking and tobacco use. Through its peer-to-peer approach, CHOICES has reached more than 2,000 people.
“These award winners exemplify the exceptional energy, commitment, dedication and creativity necessary to fight against mental health stigma,” said David Shern, Ph.D., president and CEO of Mental Health America. “Our four honorees today have greatly improved the lives of countless Americans through their tireless efforts to improve our nation’s mental health.”
CHOICES Program is featured in Key Assistance Report
The National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse recently released a Key Assistance Report Focus on Smoking Cessation. This organization is an important source of information for people with mental illness and this is their first report on smoking cessation. The article features the CHOICES program (www.njchoices.org) was and an interview with CHOICES Consumer Tobacco Advocate, Wayne Holland.
Click here to read the entire article.
Program helping mentally ill smokers
BY JAMIE TALAN jamie.talan@newsday.com
(March 13, 2007) Joe learned to smoke at a psychiatric hospital in the 1980s, when the staff would hand out cigarettes to get patients to take their medicines, mop the floors or clean the dining room. The rewards added up, and pretty soon Joe was hooked - along with the more than 60 percent of people with psychiatric illnesses who smoke cigarettes.
"Nobody ever discussed smoking as part of the illness," said Joe, who asked that his last name not be used. He has taken part in an innovative program at Clubhouse of Suffolk Inc., a psychiatric rehabilitation and support agency in
Ronkonkoma. Under a grant from the state Department of Health, Bernadette Cain, program director at Clubhouse, devised the smoking cessation program. So far, 66 people have participated, resulting in a 36 percent quit rate - better than rates established by programs for the general population.
Joe hasn't smoked in almost 17 months and has made his car and, more recently, his home into "smoke-free" environments. The cessation program includes nicotine replacements, self-help support groups as well as other health-improving interventions for exercise, stress reduction and adopting healthy habits.
About 20 percent of the U.S. population are smokers. The rate is three times that in people with psychiatric illnesses. Studies have shown that people with mental illness die 25 years earlier from cardiovascular diseases, emphysema and lung cancer. Traditionally, the care that many patients receive is centered on their emotional problems and not their medical ones.
"Smoking is thought to be very hard to control in patients with mental illness," said Dr. Jill Williams, director of the division of addiction psychiatry at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. "So no one really tries to help them."
Williams and Cain are trying to change that. With the promising results from the Clubhouse program, they have made a video and have received new state funding to put the anti-smoking intervention into community housing programs and in-patient psychiatric hospitals. They will be training people at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, Stony Brook University Hospital and Pederson-Krag Center in Huntington.
"We have shown that modifying existing programs to help mentally ill people stop smoking works," Cain said. "The truth is that they can stop and are motivated to stop when they have these tailored interventions in place."
"We need an intervention, but we also need to change the culture," said Cain, who is trying to get health professionals to stop giving clients cigarettes. "They need other ways to reward patients," she said. The program includes current nicotine replacements plus support groups and education tailored to the needs of the mentally ill.
Williams said that although most hospitals are smoke-free, "patients are not given treatments to help them quit."
Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Inc.
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hssmok135128132mar13,0,4529955.story?coll=ny-health-print
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Substance Abuse Funding News Highlights CHOICES Program
NJ Program Tackles Tobacco Addiction, Mental Illness (June 29, 2007)New Jersey : A program helping people with mental illness quit smoking gets center stage at Mental Health America 's annual meeting in Washington , DC , this year.
The association has awarded New Jersey 's CHOICES (Consumers Helping Others Improve their Condition by Ending Smoking) its Innovation in Programming Award, recognizing the program's unique approach to treating the often co-occurring conditions.
CHOICES is innovative in its use of peer-to-peer outreach, the program's medical director Jill Williams tells SAF . Williams, director of Mental Health Tobacco Treatment Services, at the U. of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey , says she and advocacy director Marie Verna co-founded the program because they were frustrated by the lack of progress in educating mental health consumers about the importance of quitting smoking. Aware of the efficacy of peer encouragement in other areas, Williams says she realized this might be the right approach to smoking cessation, too.
The program uses mental health consumers—called Consumer Tobacco Advocates—to deliver the message. They visit mental health centers, self-help centers and health fairs to communicate with and educate other mental health consumers about their smoking. They provide peers with information about the consequences of smoking, issues regarding smoking and mental illness and options available to make quitting easier—and they offer resources about places in the state where smokers with mental illness can receive tobacco dependence treatment.
The program was created in 2005, with support from the American Legacy Foundation, U. of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey 's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-Division of Addiction Psychiatry, the Mental Health Assn. in New Jersey and the State of New Jersey Mental Health Services.
Williams also has received a grant from the Nat'l Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)—the Career Development Award (K23): Nicotine Dependence Treatment in Psychiatric Comorbidity. Williams is focusing now on treatments to help people with schizophrenia quit smoking.
Info: CHOICES Program, 671 Hoes Lane , Piscataway , NJ 08854 ; 732/235-4873; or e-mail program director Martha Dwyer at dwyermh@umdnj.edu |
