Welcome to my internship blog! I am volunteering at the local Health Department to improve their tobacco cessation services.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Presentation Report

“Lighting the Spark to put out the Flame”


Presented March 22, 2010 to:

Neighborhood of Dreams Staff


MHSA Program Managers:

“Lighting the Spark to put out the Flame” is a presentation targeted for staff of wellness and recovery facilities to spark interest in their roles in assisting consumers to quit smoking. This was spun from the collaboration between the public health tobacco cessation program director and mental health program managers. A health education intern contributing in mental health realized this would be a great way to bridge the two county divisions as well as address the evident need of cessation services targeted specifically to mental health consumers. This also coincides with the growing nation-wide movement to embark upon tobacco cessation for this population.

A briefing was developed to share current research on tobacco use among consumers as well as introduce staff to the shortened version of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines for clinicians—ASK, ADVISE, REFER. Lastly the briefing provided information on resources, handouts, posters, and pens.

The staff were very engaged and excited to implement the information given. The greatest impact of the presentation was that they agreed to host a smoking cessation class for their consumers in the near future which they are coordinating through Public Health. MHSA can assume that other county wellness and recovery sites may be interested in the same.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Lighting the Spark to put out the Flame

Today I presented "Lighting the Spark to put out the Flame" to the wellness and recovery unit. There were 6 staff members in attendance and they all were very responsive and excited to hear the presentation. It went very well I thought and most importantly the director set up a tentative plan to have the county present a smoking cessation class to their consumers!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

3/16/2010

Since my last post I've met with my preceptor a couple times and fine-tuned my presentation for my training session which will happen on Monday March 22 at a wellness and recovery facility. Today I made packets for each participant which include handouts and a survey. I also collected 6 posters to give to the facility in hopes that they post them around their facility. The facility director informed me they do not have PowerPoint capibilities so I can borrow one from here (the mental health division) but I'm not sure if I want to hassle with it or not. I'm looking forward to getting the training done and starting on my final written assignment.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

3/9/2010

Still in the works of setting the date and time of my staff training session. Right now it looks like it will be March 22. I've been meeting with my preceptor and she's giving me great advise and tips on how to present the information in a captivating and simple way. It looks like I may not be able to use PowerPoint so I'm brainstorming ways to... honestly... take all the eyes off me! I was thinking I might print the PowerPoint as a handout. I have another meeting tomorrow to get input on my staff survey that I'll be requesting the participants to fill out.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Since my last post I've been busy with many accomplishments on my internship.
Feb 10, 2010-
I was fortunate to attend 2 webinars on the topic of smoking cessation. The first was presented by the Center for Tobacco Cessation at UC San Dieago and was targeted for clinical providers. It explained how to "deliver effective and efficient clinical tobacco interventions to patients using systematic approaches." Although I was not a part of their target audience I gained knowledge on why tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., the importance of treating tobacco, and common usage patterns of tobacco dependence.
Feb 12, 2010-
The second webinar was presented by SAMSHA (Substance abuse & Mental Health Services Administration) was titled "Addressing Barriers to Delivering Tobacco Dependence Interventions Across Mental Health Settings". This webinar was very productive to me because it addressed all the issues I'm dealing with in developing my tobacco intervention in the mental health community. However it seemed to me the target audience was for more of health leaders because all information given was in a macro paradigm. For example the presenters mentioned statagies such as enforcing smoke free policies, training staff, standardizing assessments, developing protocals for pharmacotherapy...ect... Although these strategies are not possible at my level the webinar did provide a wealth of information that I can use in my intervention development such as mostly the aspects listed above as helpful from the first webinar only this one is particular to tobacco users with mental illness.
Feb 17, 2010-
After the webinars and much literature review I came to the conclusion that the best intervention I can develop is to have a provider training. Because the mental health delivery system is well behind ordinary health delivery in tobacco cessation; providers themselves are still unaware or unconvinced that mental ill patients want and can quit. I met with the director of tobacco cessation for my county and shared my idea with her. She is very enthusastic about it and agreed to help me in every way possible. She even asked if she could come along as well to support me during the training; which is great because then the participants could meet who they will be following up with. She also said she could get me some flyiers, and posters to hand out.
Feb 24, 2010-
I met with my internship preceptor to let her know my plans and ask if she had any contacts to find a treatment facility (like a wellness and recovery unit) that would allow me to present my provider training session. With only a few rejections we found a facility that was willing and excited to host. I've started putting my Powerpoint presentation together and have named the project "Lighting the Spark to put out the Flame".
Today March 1, 2010
I've been playing phone tag with Travis the director of the wellness and recovery unit who is hosting my training. But through voice mail we've agreed that March is a good month to hold the first session. Hopefully we'll work out the kinks soon such as, exactly when, where, and how many will be available to attend. Getting exciting around here... I also have to say that the instructor of the tobacco sessation class that I observed told me about an ALA tobacco cessation facilitator class coming up that I'm hoping to get into... more to come.