Tobacco-Free Behavioral Health 

Individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorders have the highest rates of tobacco use in our community. Change for Life: Tobacco-Free Recovery is an initiative that addresses the use of tobacco and tobacco disparities within this behavioral health population.

Behavioral health clients often receive treatment from organizations with inpatient and outpatient services. Tobacco-control strategies within these settings support long-term recovery, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and promote wellness. Tobacco-free campuses are also healthier for employees and visitors.

Change for Life: Tobacco-Free Recovery empowers behavioral health organizations to:

• Adopt and implement tobacco-free campus policies.
  
• Integrate best practice tobacco treatment into ongoing services.
• Employ shared messaging that supports a positive tobacco-free culture of care for clients and staff. 

Treating All Disorders

Change for Life represents a shift in public policy and clinical thinking–away from the belief that it is more urgent to treat substance and mental health disorders than to treat all disorders simultaneously. Research demonstrates that people who suffer from substance use disorder are as eager to quit smoking as anyone. But they might feel they can't stop smoking or lack support. The result is that these patients are left vulnerable to the devastating consequences of smoking, vaping, and other forms of tobacco use.

Helping patients quit and remain abstinent from smoking can result in a 25% increased likelihood of sustained recovery from the use of alcohol and other drugs. -- Prochaska et al, 2004

Change for Life insists that all addictions are urgent, treatable, and beatable. If someone suffers from the physical, emotional, and financial costs of smoking and substance abuse, he or she has the right–and the need–to be free of both. Change for Life makes that possible. It is about agencies embracing best practice change to empower individuals to change for life.