LGBT HealthLink worked in collaboration with Sibling National Disparity Networks to create a tool that would provide a fast way to convey how tobacco, the cause of one third of all cancers, has a disproportionate impact on disparity populations. The resulting infographic will aid health officials, health providers, as well as decision makers to highlight pertinent information on the key tobacco related disparities, broaden understanding, and promote ideas for action. Please right click on either image below to download and use on your website or in other digital publications.

"We hope that this tool will empower our stakeholders to draw attention to key tobacco disparities about each of these priority populations around the nation" stated, Regina R. Washington, LGBT HealthLink Director.

Our Collaborators: National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, National Native Network, The RAISE Network, Nuestras Voces, National Behavioral Health Network for Tobacco and Cancer, Geographic Health Equity Alliance, and SelfMade Health Network.

Please feel free to contact LGBT HealthLink for more information, and to share this infographic widely to motivate your grantees to build disparity population engagement in their daily activities.

The California Smokers’ Helpline and its training and technical assistance arm, the Center for Tobacco Cessation, are pleased to offer this free Provider Toolkit, Youth and Tobacco, including:

• Recorded Webinar and Slide Deck: Youth and Tobacco, presented by Kimberlee Homer Vagadori,  Project Director for the California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN).
• Patient Handouts: Cigars, Hookah, Marijuana

Tobacco use trends among youth have shifted in recent years.  As cigarette smoking rates decrease, use of other tobacco and nicotine products is increasing.  This webinar highlights changes in tobacco use by teens and explore the factors that contribute to youth use.  Information is also shared about how to encourage teens to quit, and how to engage youth in activities to prevent addiction to tobacco.

The California Smokers' Helpline is pleased to offer free, new patient materials in English and Spanish, targeted to smokers who are pregnant or have children age 5 and under. These materials are available free of charge and shipping, and while there is no maximum order size, each order must total a minimum of 25 pieces.

In addition to promoting the Helpline's free evidence-based telephone counseling services, the materials promote free nicotine patches for qualified smokers who are pregnant or have children age 5 or under, mailed directly from the Helpline.

Helpline staff screen callers who request nicotine patches for contraindications, including pregnancy. For callers with contraindications, physician approval is required.

These new materials and free nicotine patches are made possible by funding from First 5 California.

The California Smokers’ Helpline and its training and technical assistance arm, the Center for Tobacco Cessation, are pleased to host this free webinar on Thursday, September 29th from noon to 1 pm PST,  "Two and a half years; has the sheen worn off marijuana legalization?"

Webinar Overview

In January 2014 Colorado became the first in the nation to legalize retail marijuana sales. What do we know about the relationship between marijuana and tobacco? How have perceptions of harm and prevalence been effected? Join us for a presentation of some early findings from youth and adults. Ask questions about what may be in store for California and what opportunities exist for tobacco control. 

About the Presenter

Carsten Baumann, MA serves as the Manager of the Early Childhood Evaluation Unit and the Manager of External Evaluations at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and operates his own evaluation consultancy. Carsten possesses more than twenty-five years experience in applied social science research.

He is primarily responsible for the design and implementation of an overall plan for measuring the effectiveness of the Department’s tobacco-tax funded grants programs, including the State Tobacco Education & Prevention Program; the Cancer, Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease Grants Program and the Office of Health Equity Grants Program. These programs distribute about $37 million in grants annually. Carsten also leads the quality improvement and evaluation for Colorado’s Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs and serves as an evaluation consultant to other prevention programs.

He has applied his skills to strategic planning, evaluation, program design and training. He also provides consultation to other states, foundations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on evaluations of systems change, tobacco control, physical activity and nutrition interventions. Additionally, he has conducted workshops on economic evaluation nationally.

The California Smokers’ Helpline is pleased to ofer this free recorded webinar, How to Talk with Patients About Smoking Cessation and Anxiety.

The relationship between anxiety and smoking is a significant concern among health professionals. Smokers often use cigarettes to help them manage anxiety. This reliance on cigarettes to reduce anxiety can keep smokers from even trying to quit. And if they do quit, anxiety can trigger relapse. This webinar will address key strategies to help smokers with anxiety to quit.

Click below to complete the form and you’ll be able to watch the webinar and download the course materials. You can also take the course for 1.0 free CE credit. The following credits are being offered: CA BBS, APA, ASWB, CAADE, and CME.

In addition to our free web-based referral service, the California Smokers' Helpline is pleased to offer two new, fee for service options for health care providers interested in referring their patients who smoke to our free, evidence-based smoking cessation services.

In 2015, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) determined that the California Smokers’ Helpline meets the Specialized Registry Reporting measure. Eligible professionals can choose to report smokers to the Helpline as part of their Meaningful Use Compliance.

• DIRECT/Secure Email: Utilizing the Direct Project, which was launched in March 2010 as a part of the Nationwide Health Information Network, health professionals can utilize easy and affordable clinical messaging to send patient referrals to the Helpline. Direct email messages are secure, which means that providers can use them to send patient information to the Helpline and individual level referral data may be sent back to the health professional. 
• Other Internet Options: For health professionals who utilize Electronic Health Records, the Helpline can set up a secure, HL7 2.X type interface so that patient referrals are sent securely to the Helpline and individual level referral data may be sent back to the health professional. Transport options supported include LLP, TCP/IP, SFTP, and web services. 

Pricing for fee for service options depends on a variety of factors. To find out which option is best and most affordable for your practice, please click below to complete an online form.

A contest among local tobacco control programs and community tobacco control advocates in California was held during May of 2016. The contest provided an opportunity for local projects to share their efforts in promoting the California Smokers' Helpline. Twenty-two entries were submitted by projects throughout California to showcase the creative and thoughtful ways that tobacco control advocates are promoting the Helpline in local communities. While all entries were excellent, and the competition was tough, the California Tobacco Control Program is pleased to announce the winners of the contest in the following four categories.

Congratulations to all the 2016 Awards for Excellence in California Helpline Promotion winners and thank you to all tobacco control advocates who submitted their work. The California Tobacco Control Program encourages local and statewide projects to continue their efforts to promote the California Smokers’ Helpline and reduce tobacco use in your community. Contact information is listed for each winning entry if you would like more information.

Please contact Kristin Harms at the California Smokers' Helpline at (858) 300-1011 or kharms@ucsd.edu if you would like to plan and implement a Helpline promotional campaign in your community.

Best Print Project
Sutter County Community Marketing Campaign
Category includes brochures, flyers, posters, and signage

Since June of 2015, A-frame signage has been used to promote tobacco-free environments and workspaces throughout Sutter County and the surrounding community. 

In January of 2016, the county tobacco control program purchased additional signs to meet increasing demand from local agencies to display messaging at their location.

Furthermore, several agencies including the City of Yuba City ordered personalized A-frame signage for their sites and events using the Sutter County template and adding their own logo.  A total of 16 signs have been distributed throughout the community at various locations and community events to promote tobacco-free community messaging.

For more information on this campaign, contact Kara Gash at Sutter County Health and Human Services at KGash@co.sutter.ca.us or (530) 822-7215 ext. 276

Best Internet & New Media Project
California Youth Advocacy Network,
Facebook Ad: Every Day is a Great Day to Quit Tobacco
Category includes websites, social media, web-based training, and web banners

This Facebook ad was part of a larger web-based campaign aimed at encouraging US Military service members and veterans to quit tobacco. This ad was one of six, and it was the best performing message of the set.

The message was displayed via a Facebook ad to service members in California. In total, over a period of one and a half months, the ad was viewed by 97,542 individuals, and it generated 3,233 clicks to the California Smokers’ Helpline website.   

For more information on this campaign, contact Kim Homer Vagadori at the California Youth Advocacy Network at kim@cyanonline.org or (916) 339-3424 ext. 22

Best Audio/Video Project  
United Indian Health Services,
Ask, Advise, Refer - Show that You Care Presentation Kit
Category includes audio/visual ads, and special projects or community presentations

The Native Tobacco Project created a presentation and associated handouts and materials for tobacco cessation education with American Indian community agencies and community agencies serving the American Indian population.

This presentation kit is tailored to promote Ask, Advise, Refer and encourage promotion of the California Smokers’ Helpline. Extensive collaboration between the Native Tobacco Project, Del Norte County and Humboldt County tobacco programs resulted in this special community presentation project.

For more information on this presentation kit, contact Nick Corcovelos at United Indian Health Service at Nicholas.Corcovelos@CRIHB.org or (707) 464-8218.

Best Media Relations Project
UC Quits, Press Release
Category includes news releases, op/eds, media kits, and e-blasts

A press release was issued by the University of California (UC) Davis to describe the UC Quits project that highlighted the Helpline eReferral.  The goal was to educate the general public about how the 5 UC medical centers were connecting to the California Smokers’ Helpline through electronic health records system. 

The press release resulted in approximately 500 online hits per GoogleAlert, and was picked up by several publications including the Sacramento Bee.

For more information on this press release, contact Cindy Vela at Cynthia.Vela@dhcs.ca.gov or (916) 703-5654.

While supplies last, the California Smokers' Helpline is offering a limited number of Helpline materials free of charge and shipping! This is a special event to reduce our inventory of patient materials. There is no maximum order size but each order must total a minimum of 25 pieces.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has determined that the California Smokers’ Helpline meets the Specialized Registry Reporting measure. The California Smokers’ Helpline, funded primarily by the CDPH, California Tobacco Control Program, provides free tobacco cessation counseling in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese. It also conducts population research using data collected from participants.

Beginning in 2013, the University of California Davis Health System integrated a proactive, two-way eReferral to the California Smokers’ Helpline into its EHR. The other four University of California health systems followed suit over the next two years. In 2015, the CDPH designated the California Smokers’ Helpline as a Public Health “Specialized” Registry and the University of California Irvine Health System used this designation to demonstrate Meaningful Use (MU) compliance.

The designation of the California Smokers’ Helpline as a Specialized Registry helps link public health and health care systems. It supports efforts to ensure that health systems routinely screen all patients for tobacco use or exposure, advise all tobacco users to quit, and offer evidence based cessation assistance to those who are willing to make a quit attempt. Data in this registry can be used both to help individual tobacco users quit, e.g. by sending them repeated reminders to quit with offers of assistance, and to understand larger trends in the tobacco using population and influence cessation on a population level.

Following successful implementation of eReferrals within the five University of California health systems, the California Smokers’ Helpline is currently expanding its eReferral service to a large outpatient clinic system and two additional hospitals, and hopes to expand the program further in the future. Instructions and criteria for implementation of eReferrals to the California Smokers’ Helpline will be available in September 2016.

Early adopters of Stage 3 will still be able to submit this registry to fulfill the Stage 3 Meaningful Use Public Health Registry Measure. For 2017, please submit under the 2014 Edition CEHRT criteria.

If you have any questions specific to Specialized Registries, please send your inquiries to MeaningfulUse@cdph.ca.gov.