Women, Girls, and Tobacco Project

The Women, Girls & Tobacco Project was funded through the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Tobacco Control Program to address tobacco use by girls and women through a variety of strategies.  These included increasing the likelihood that providers who encounter women and girls will effectively raise the issue of smoking; enhancing the capacity of tobacco control providers to meet the needs of girls and women; consulting to the Massachusetts Departments of Public Health and Education; and providing training and technical assistance.  A treatment model designed to meet the specific needs of women who smoke was in development.

The Women, Girls & Tobacco Advisory Committee of the Health Protection Fund Tobacco Advisory Committee was comprised of a diverse group of individuals who meet on a regular basis to address issues related to tobacco use by women and girls.  This group submitted recommendations to the Massachusetts Departments of Public Health and Education, and conferred with other Massachusetts Tobacco Advisory Committees and with other groups nationally which seek to impact tobacco use by women and girls.

Circle of Friends / Circle of Hope

The Circle of Friends/Circle of Hope project focuses on women living in six geographically diverse Massachusetts residential substance abuse treatment programs.  Among this population, smoking rates are high and quit attempts may be discouraged by support systems which are key to substance abuse recovery.  Research has demonstrated that substance abusers are interested in quitting smoking and that people who are non-smokers or who quit smoking at the same time they quit alcohol and other drug use maintain longer periods of abstinence than people in recovery who continue to smoke. 

This project includes a tobacco education and treatment specialist who provides intensive group services to women clients, utilizing a curricula adapted by the Tobacco, Addictions, Policy and Education (TAPE) Project of the Institute for Health and Recovery (IHR), and a residential program staff who is trained to continue the program.  Providing ongoing, in-kind clinical training and consultation services to program staff facilitates the creation and maintenance of an environment that assists women in staying smoke-free, eases the emotional hardship involved in smoking cessation, and addresses concerns which cause women to start smoking again.

 This project:

• creates a program environment supportive of tobacco education and treatment
• facilitates two weekly one-hour consumer groups in 6 women’s residential substance abuse treatment centers
• integrates assessment and treatment services by developing office systems to maintain them
• eases and demystifies the quitting process in a group for which such services have been rarely available or accessible
• adapts a non-smoking curriculum originally designed for low-income women, which remains a part of the residential program’s services, and can be shared with similar programs

IHR has been a key player in Massachusetts’ tobacco control efforts, training providers and systems serving people with substance abuse problems and mental illness, and working with programs serving women and girls.  This project combines these causes and creates direct services that did not exist in the Commonwealth for this underserved population.

 The Circle of Friends/Circle of Hope project is funded by the American Legacy foundation.  For more information, please contact Marilyn Huffman, Tobacco Treatment Specialist at marilynhuffman@healthrecovery.org or (617) 661-3991.