National Working Group for ACTTION

April 21, 2010

Dear Partners,

In 2008, Partnership for Prevention convened the National Working Group for ACTTION (Access to Cessation Treatment of Tobacco In Our Nation) to address the need to increase the number of smokers who are offered assistance to quit.   Partnership is now very excited to be taking the efforts of ACTTION to the next level by awarding six grants to state projects that will develop and strengthen state-level alliances for tobacco cessation.  These projects will help implement the multi-sector Call for ACTTION.

Collaboration is an important feature of these projects.  Each state was required to work with partnering organizations.  The partners include state health departments, health care providers, insurers, state tobacco control coalitions, medical societies, and health voluntaries.  By working with their partners, these projects will make progress toward a significant increase in access to and use of proven tobacco cessation treatments.  They will aim to address barriers to change in health systems.

These six projects (one of which is actually a regional project covering 6 states) will join Indiana in strengthening access to tobacco cessation treatments, which has already held a state summit on cessation and prepared a strategic plan.  More information on these new projects is provided a separate article in this newsletter.

The value of cessation in reducing smoking prevalence has been shown in Massachusetts through its Medicaid cessation benefit.  The benefit was discussed in an ACTTION webinar last year and also an interview with the head of the program in the January newsletter.   An article published in the PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science) concludes  that a tobacco cessation benefit that includes coverage for medications and behavioral treatments, has few barriers to access, and involves broad promotion can significantly reduce smoking prevalence.  (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009770)

Partnership hopes that these projects are just the beginning of collaboration among public and private health, business and political leaders in all the states as they work to achieve the ACTTION goal of expanding access to comprehensive tobacco cessation treatment to 50% of smokers by 2015 and 100% by 2020.  As Massachusetts has shown, increasing cessation can dramatically decrease prevalence of tobacco use.  The new ACTTION grantees will show how strong collaboration can increase cessation.

Regards,

Diane Canova, JD
Vice President, Policy & Programs
Partnership for Prevention