Smoking cessation within substance abuse treatment centers: Does a staff dedicated to smoking cessation really make a difference?

There are different schools of thought as to the advantages of including smoking cessation in substance abuse treatment facilities. The purpose of this study is to examine the differences between substance abuse treatment centers that have a staff dedicated to smoking cessation and those who do not. Using randomly selected substance abuse treatment centers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration database, we collected data from 226 program administrators across the United States by conducting in-depth phone interviews. We concluded that substance abuse treatment centers that have a dedicated staff to smoking cessation are more likely to identify smokers at intake (p<0.028), assess smoking cessation treatment in staff performance evaluations (p<0.001), provide evidence-based treatment as services (p<0.001), and provide counselor training (p<0.001), resources (p<0.001), and clinical supervision (p<0.001) on smoking cessation treatment. From this study, we have found that having a staff dedicated to provide smoking cessation treatment is associated with a higher level of system-level support for smoking cessation within substance abuse treatment programs. We believe that having a dedicated staff to smoking cessation can not only increase the smoking cessation efforts for people with co-occurring substance abuse issues, but can also increase the overall sobriety of these individuals.