The smoking rate for adults with mental illness is 70 percent higher than for adults with no mental illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That's one reason the CDC recently invited APA to be a partner in the 2016 Tips From Former Smokers campaign, a federally funded national tobacco education initiative that features real Americans living with serious long-term health effects from smoking.
APA's role in the partnership is to spread information to psychologists and behavioral health professionals about the importance of addressing smoking with patients.
"Practitioners may be dealing with other conditions in these patients that can push the smoking issue to the background, but often these patients end up dying from smoking-related conditions," says Lula Beatty, PhD, senior director for health disparities at APA. "Generally people want to quit, but it is very hard to do and often they need professional assistance."
One of the ads features a woman named Rebecca who started smoking as a teen and later was diagnosed with depression. Trying and failing to quit contributed to her depression, which then led her to smoke more, creating a vicious cycle. She eventually did quit, and now feels better both mentally and physically.
To equip behavioral health practitioners to address the issue of smoking with patients who have a mental health problem, APA and the Morehouse School of Medicine in Georgia offered a webinaropens in new window in April that is still available online, Beatty says. APA is also creating an app for clinicians who treat rural, HIV positive, LGBT, mentally ill, American Indian and other health priority populations that have a higher-than-average smoking rate. For each population, the app will list the prevalence, risk factors, assessment tools and evidence-based practices.
"Most people agree that smoking is not good for you, but it's easy to prioritize other presenting problems," Beatty says. "I hope we can re-energize practitioners about the dangers of smoking and the importance of paying attention to this issue in high-risk populations."
Providers can visit the Tips website to learn more about how to help people with mental health conditions quit smoking and get free tools www.cdc.gov/tipsmentalhealthopens in new window.
— Heather Stringer
