Knowledge exchange webinars

Overview

Smoking cessation is more complicated for people with mental illness because: 1) symptoms of nicotine withdrawal can be difficult to distinguish from mental health symptoms, and; 2) smoking cessation can increase the blood levels and hence side-effects of some psychotropic medications. The first part of this presentation describes the implementation in Victoria’s Quitline of a tool to help monitor nicotine withdrawal and common medication side-effects.  The second part of the presentation focuses on an evaluation of Quitline for smokers with mental illness, including use and satisfaction with the service, and quit rates at six month follow up. 

Speaker

Cathy Segan has a PhD in psychology.  She is currently Behavioural Scientist at Quit Victoria, evaluating partnership projects to reduce smoking among disadvantaged populations and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Policy, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.  Cathy is particularly interested in the tailoring of Quitline services to meet the complex needs of marginalized smokers. She has clinical skills in smoking cessation having previously worked on the Quitline and the training of Quit Educators.  Underpinning Cathy’s work is the translation of research findings into evidence based programs.

Overview:

This presentation will discuss the concept of trauma as it relates to tobacco use and cessation. Lorraine Greaves and Nancy Poole will outline the key elements of trauma informed practice and link them to the field of tobacco cessation and control. 

Speakers:

Lorraine Greaves, PhD is Senior Investigator at the BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, and Past President of the International Network of Women Against Tobacco. She is well known for her work, consultation, articles and books on women, gender, trauma and tobacco control and cessation.

Nancy Poole, PhD is Director, BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, and Lead on numerous initiatives in Canada and internationally on women, gender, substance use, alcohol and trauma.

Lorraine and Nancy are the authors/editors of Becoming Trauma Informed (CAMH, 2012); Highs and Lows: Canadian perspectives on women and substance use (CAMH, 2007); Transforming Addiction: gender, trauma and transdisciplinarity (with E Boyle, Routledge, 2014) as well as Liberation! a guide to women centred tobacco treatment and Expecting to Quit: better practices on cessation during pregnancy and post partum.

Overview

In Canada more men currently smoke than women, with the highest smoking prevalence among young adult men ages 25-34 years. As well, more men than women attempt to quit smoking, a fact confirming both the interest and challenges men experience in their quit attempts. Our explorations of linkages between masculinities and smoking have provided important insights into men’s resistance to quitting, as well as how masculine ideals can be mobilized to motivate cessation. We will describe a novel, evidence-based  men-centred program to support smoking cessation, Dads in Gear, and emerging findings from a feasibility study. Suggestions for sex-specific and gender-sensitive approaches to engage men in reducing and quitting addictive substances will be provided.

Presenters

John L. Oliffe, PhD, RN is a professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Applied Science, UBC (Vancouver campus), and lead investigator of UBC’s Men’s Health Research program.

Joan L. Bottorff, PhD, RN is a professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health and Social Development, UBC (Okanagan campus), and Director of the Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention at UBC.

Overview

This presentation will provide a thorough status report on e-cigarettes, looking at the evolving market, the state of the evidence regarding both risks to health and effectiveness as a cessation aid, and regulatory developments in Canada and elsewhere.

Presenter

Melodie Tilson has worked in tobacco control for 25 years and has been the Director of Policy with the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association since 2007. Her responsibilities include monitoring, analyzing, and providing strategic responses to current and emerging issues. Over the past four years, Melodie has devoted much of her time to the e-cigarette issue—understanding their potential impact, both good and bad, on progress in reducing tobacco use and providing leadership on the issue to the Canadian health community. 

Melodie has been a plenary speaker at international and national conferences and was recently a member of the Board of Directors of the Framework Convention Alliance, a group of over 450 organizations from around the world that advocate for the ratification and effective implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first global public health treaty.  

Overview

State-licensed production, processing and retailing of “recreational” marijuana began in 2014. Recent legislation is now bringing the sale of “medical” marijuana into the state system. Our presenters will share how it was implemented, some of the lessons learned and how the various government agencies are involved. There will be plenty of time for discussion. 

Presenters

Kristi Weeks serves as Policy Counsel to the Department of Health, including overseeing the department’s implementation of marijuana regulation.

Mary Segawa is the Public Health Education Liaison at the WA State Liquor and Cannabis Board, focusing on policy and education related to preventing the misuse and abuse of alcohol and marijuana, including underage use.

Dr. Gillian Schauer is a contractor with the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that capacity, she works on research and policy issues related to both tobacco and marijuana. She has been CDC’s on-the-ground lead working with states on marijuana policy and works closely with Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and Colorado. 

Overview

The minimum age for sale, possession, consumption, or purchase of tobacco products, including electronic smoking devices (e-cigarettes) will increase from 18 to 21 years in the state of Hawaii on January 1, 2016. It is the first state in the U.S. to pass such a law. This presentation will describe the strategies and collaborative factors that made this possible.

Speaker

Lila Johnson, RN. MPH, is the Program Manager for the Hawaii Department of Health, Tobacco Prevention and Education Program and has been with the Program for 18 years. Johnson earned a B.S. in Nursing from San Francisco State University and her M.P.H. at the University of Hawaii. 

Overview

This presentation will provide an updated overview of developments in Canada regarding flavoured tobacco. Five provinces (AB, ON, QC, NB, NS) have brought forward legislation to ban flavoured tobacco, including menthol, while PEI is developing regulations. The presentation will include the rationale for these bans, the legislative experiences in other provinces, federal legislation, arguments of opponents, and the international context. BC has not yet brought forward legislation to ban flavoured tobacco, and can learn about what others jurisdictions have done regarding flavoured tobacco products. 

Speaker

Our presenter is Rob Cunningham, a lawyer and Senior Policy Analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society who has worked in tobacco control for 27 years.

Overview

Finding innovative ways to encourage and inspire people who smoke, often hardened smokers, may be difficult.  This presentation will look at ways to use CT lung cancer screening as a tool to show people how their lung functions have diminished as a result of smoking and that by quitting, people’s health can be improved.   There are tremendous benefits to the individual and to the health care system as a whole to use this as a tool. 

Speaker

Dr. Stephen Lam is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He chairs the Provincial Lung Tumour Group at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and directs the MDS-Rix Early Lung Cancer Detection and Translational Research Program at the BCCA. His research interest is in early detection, chemoprevention and endoscopic therapy of lung cancer. He was the recipient of the Friesen-Rygiel Award for Outstanding Canadian Academic Discovery and the Gustav Killian Medal by the World Association of Bronchology for his pioneering contributions to the field of early lung cancer diagnosis, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of British Columbia and the Joseph Cullen Award for life-time scientific achievements in lung cancer prevention research by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Dr. Lam received his medical training at the University of Toronto and did his residency and fellowship training in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at University of British Columbia-associated hospitals. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, he joined the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1979 and the BC Cancer Agency in 1984.

Re: Smoking and all-cause mortality in Australia: findings from a mature epidemic.

A large Australian study of more than 200,000 people has provided independent confirmation that up to two in every three smokers will die from their addiction if they continue to smoke. The research, published in the International Journal BMC Medicine, is the first evidence from a broad cross-section of the population to show the smoking-related death toll is as high as two thirds.

"We knew smoking was bad, but we now have direct independent evidence that confirms the disturbing findings that have been emerging internationally, said lead author Professor Emily Banks, Scientific Director of the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study and a researcher at the Australian National University.

Speaker

Professor Emily Banks is a public health physician and epidemiologist with interest and expertise in large scale cohort studies, pharmacoepidemiology, women’s health, Aboriginal Health and healthy ageing. She is currently the Head of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Scientific Director of the 45 and Up Study and Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines. The main emphasis of her work has been in using cohort study methodology to identify potentially modifiable factors affecting individual and population health in different settings and in quantifying their effects, to inform improvements in health and health care.

A recent Cochrane review of smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy found that of all the approaches studied, financial incentives were the most effective. However this was based on small trials in the USA and more evidence is needed. The largest trial to date of incentives for cessation in pregnancy, involving just over 600 women, has recently been completed in Glasgow, Scotland. In this study incentives were combined with the offer of support from local cessation services. At the end of pregnancy 22.5% of women in the incentives group had stopped smoking compared with 8.6% in the control group. An economic analysis and qualitative research was also conducted. Incentives remain highly controversial and the results of the trial have been met with a mixed response in the UK and elsewhere. This presentation will describe the content and results of the study, implications and future research.

Speaker

Linda Bauld is Professor of Health Policy at the University of Stirling in Scotland. She is also Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies which covers 13 Universities. Linda is a former scientific adviser on tobacco control to the UK government and currently holds the Cancer Research UK Chair in Behavioural Research for Cancer Prevention, a part time secondment to CRUK to lead their cancer prevention initiative.

Email: linda.bauld@stir.ac.uk

Research Article