The Institute for Health and Recovery’s Smoke-Free Families Initiative promotes the integration of secondhand smoke awareness and tobacco cessation resources into home visits and other services to at-risk families. Smoke-Free Families has trained and provided policy assistance to over 20 Early Intervention sites across Massachusetts. Smoking prevalence and secondhand smoke exposure is high among families in this system, based on the intersection of smoking prevalence and demographics in this population, with such factors as clients’ gender, socioeconomic status, educational status, and likelihood of co-occurring disorders including substance use, mental illness, and histories of trauma.
Working with high-risk families involves dealing with crisis and survival issues, and addressing nicotine addiction and secondhand smoke exposure are often perceived as lower priorities. Providers are frequently unaware of the global positive impact of quitting smoking or changing tobacco use patterns such as improved children’s health, decrease in financial stress, greater access to housing, increased benefit from medications, and improved overall emotional and physical health status. Providers may not know that there are resources for assisting with the quitting process, such as free telephone counseling or access to quit smoking medications through MassHealth. They may also mistakenly assume that clients are not interested in stopping smoking.
Smoke Free Families offers the following free services to programs:
- Assessment of the current policies, attitudes, and training needs regarding addressing secondhand smoke with families
- Technical assistance to program directors on strategies for integration, support for adoption and enforcement, and language for policies
- Staff training, on-site and usually during regularly scheduled staff meetings, with opportunities to raise concerns about addressing tobacco, gain understanding of the rationale for doing so, and learn and practice tools for talking with clients (EI Competencies and Social Work CEU’s available)
- Ongoing technical assistance as needed, even after the main trainings
- Follow-up trainings if desired by the program on topics such as advanced motivational interviewing skills or responding to resistance
For more information, please contact Adrienne Mullen, LMHC, Training & Policy Specialist at adriennemullen@healthrecovery.org or (617) 661-3991.