Excellent Archived Webinar

" Helping Smokers With Behavioral Health Comorbidity Requires a National Effort"
Presented by Jill M. Williams, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director
Division of Addiction Psychiatry
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey,  Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Originally posted Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 10:00 a.m. – Noon
Building 45 (Natcher), Balcony C, NIH Campus | Bethesda, Maryland

Resources: Live and archived videocast will be available at videocast.nih.gov.

Cosponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  Working Group on Tobacco Control and Behavioral Health

About the Seminar
Dr. Williams will be speaking about the fact that although public health interventions have led to lower smoking rates in the United States over the last 40 years, smokers with mental illness or an addiction other than smoking have benefited less from these efforts. At this time, little is being done nationally at the mental health or public health systems level to promote smoking cessation in this population. Moreover, she will talk about how little is known about smokers with mental illness or an addictive behavior because of the lack of critical information on their tobacco use patterns and trends, as well as on the effects of tobacco control measures such as excise taxes, advertising, or clean indoor air laws on this population. Dr. Williams will discuss how smokers with behavioral health comorbidity are not listed as a disparity group or priority population by most national public health or tobacco control groups, although they fulfill the criteria commonly used to designate other groups (e.g., targeted marketing by the tobacco industry, greater smoking prevalence rates, increased economic and health burden from tobacco, less access to treatment services, and longer durations of smoking with less cessation). Designating them a priority group will bring much needed attention and resources. The disparity between smoking rates in the behavioral health population compared with the general population will worsen over time if their needs remain unaddressed.

Posted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,