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.