Provider Training Results in Hawaii Behavioral Health Facilities Providing Counseling to Help Clients Quit
Strategy: Counsel Behavioral Health Clients to Quit Using Tobacco
The Hawaii Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Education Program (TPEP) surveyed behavioral health programs to learn more about their current cessation practices. Some steps that TPEP took to address tobacco use among persons with behavioral health conditions and increase counseling in Hawaii include:
- Partnered with the Hawaii Health Department’s Adult Mental Health Division to provide a series of trainings on tobacco interventions to behavioral health clinical staff, case managers, and social workers,
- Conducted a workshop for those same participants with a national expert on addressing tobacco use among persons with behavioral health conditions, and
- Worked with the state Attorney General’s Office to clarify that a state law allowing minors to consent to substance use disorder treatment without a parent’s permission also applies to tobacco cessation treatment, resulting in the state quitline and health providers being able to offer nicotine addiction counseling to more youth.
The SAMHSA surveys show that Hawaii has a high proportion of both mental health treatment facilities and substance use disorder treatment facilities offering tobacco cessation counseling to clients.1
Page last reviewed: June 10, 2020