Testing an Organizational Change Model to Address Smoking in Mental Healthcare

Despite an overall reduction in US smoking rates from \>50% in the 1960s to about 20% by 2000, the rate of smoking among persons with a serious mental illness (SMI) remains 2-3 times greater than in the general population. Further, even the recent small decline in smoking rates that has been reported in the general population in the past decade has not occurred among smokers with an SMI. In fact, 44% of all the cigarettes consumed in the US are by individuals with a psychiatric disorder and the primary cause of death among Americans with an SMI is a tobacco-related disease. This cluster randomized trial will be conducted in 14 Philadelphia community mental health clinics (CMHCs). Clinics will be randomized to either Addressing Tobacco Through Organizational Change model (ATTOC) or Usual Care (UC) treatment groups. The investigators hypothesize that 1) at the end of the intervention and at a 3-month follow-up, rates of adherence to guidelines for treating TUD will be greater among clinic personnel that receive the ATTOC intervention vs. clinic personnel in usual care; 2) at the end of the intervention and at a 3-month follow-up, rates of client smoking cessation will be significantly greater in clinics that receive the ATTOC intervention than among clients treated with usual care; and 3) using non-inferiority testing, at the end of the intervention and at a 3-month follow-up, there will be no significant degradation in mental health functioning or QOL among clients who receive care at clinics that received the ATTOC intervention than among clients treated with usual care.