CBPR Partnership Saving Lives in Southwest Baltimore

Smoking has become the bellweather of our nation’s health disparities and one of our greatest social injustices. Statewide, fewer than 15% of Marylanders smoke. Yet in Southwest Baltimore (SWB), one of the poorest communities in the state, 55% of respondents to a cross-sectional household survey reported smoking. To reach these poor, minority, and all-too-often invisible victims of tobacco, researchers at Morgan State University joined with a nonprofit grassroots collaborative and forged a partnership with SWB to design and launch CEASE (Communities Engaged and Advocating Smoke-free Environments). 

CEASE is classic CBPR. Phase I began with a random assignment to individual or group counseling for a 12-week intervention based on ALA’s Fresh Start curriculum, conducted in a Community Health Center by their personnel. Since group interventions were just as effective as individual, and because using health providers was expensive, Phase II moved CEASE into the community, where partnerships with schools, churches and NGOs provided venues that were more convenient and less intimidating. Peer Motivators who had successfully kicked their own tobacco habits and who live in the same neighborhoods as the smokers they serve, were trained to lead the six-week group cessation intervention, and manage the second six-week relapse prevention effort. Capitalizing on the now 10-year-old partnership, Phase III is varying the length and format of CEASE interventions to identify the most successful and cost-effective. To date, CEASE has served more than 1,000 smokers. Among those who attend most of the sessions, cessation rates (normally 4-7% without assistance) approach 50%!