Developing tobacco-specific trainings for community-based programs and medical providers 1.23.2007

Q:

Maine is interested in the tobacco-specific trainings state health departments offer their community-based programs and medical providers engaged in tobacco prevention and cessation. Specific topic areas of interest include the following:

1. Media advocacy
2. Policy and environmental change
3. Social marketing
   
4. Spokesperson training
   
5. Tobacco laws
6. Coalition building

Additionally, Maine would like to receive the following information, if available:

1. Who provided the training (trainer/organization) and for which topics?
2. Whether the trainings were useful/ successful
3. What materials or tools were developed that could be shared?
4. Any lessons learned or helpful comments

A:

Alabama: Alabama has developed tobacco related trainings for community partners and medical providers.

Please see Alabama's trainings for community partners and medical providers.

Connecticut: The Connecticut Tobacco program has been providing these types of trainings for almost 4 years.  It is part of the Institute for Tobacco Training and Education. It contracts with a conference planner, who with the assistance of the state, gathers speakers, locally and nationally. Training topics are developed based on needs assessments and feedback given at previous trainings. Almost all of the training have been archived on CDs.
 
Please see the Save the Date brochure for the upcoming conference in April for an idea of the types of trainings Connecticut conducts. This is a two day conference. Trainings are conducted on a 2 year basis.  The first year CT conducts 3-4 free one-day conferences and in the second year they conduct a multi-day conference for a nominal fee. 

Iowa: Iowa has provided trainings for health care providers on the USPHS Guidelines for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, brief cessation counseling, and fax referral to our state quitline.  They partnered with Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa (PPGI) to train clinicians in all of their clinics across the state.  The first training IA provided was on the 5 A's, which was not received well.  They were told that the steps were too long and difficult to implement.  They decided to instead use the American Dental Hygienists Association intervention, "Ask Advise, Refer."  Another training was provided on this intervention and was very well received; as a result, PPGI has consistently been one of their top fax referral sources.

Lessons learned:  1) Listen to what your audience says - don't be afraid to make modifications; 2) It is essential have buy-in from both administration and clinic staff.  Iowa couldn't have done this without their support. Iowa is happy to share the PowerPoint presentations they have used; please sent any inquiries to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control.

They have also contracted with the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center in Rochester, MN to provide one-day trainings on motivational interviewing for health care providers; these trainings have always been well-attended.

Lessons learned:  1) Listen to what your audience says - don't be afraid to make modifications; 2) It is essential have buy-in from both administration and clinic staff.  Iowa couldn't have done this without their support. Iowa is happy to share the PowerPoint presentations they have used; please sent any inquiries to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control.

They have also contracted with the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center in Rochester, MN to provide one-day trainings on motivational interviewing for health care providers; these trainings have always been well-attended.

Nebraska: Nebraska is in the process of developing a spokesperson training.  It will be held in March and Bob Howard of Howard & Associates (based in Duluth, GA) will conduct it.  Bob conducted a similar training for NE in 2001 and received rave reviews.  At this time they are working on developing materials for the training, but don't have anything ready to share yet.

Nevada: The HealthCare Partnership at the University of Arizona conducted a Basic Tobacco Intervention Skills training and an instructor training.  These trainings allowed providers at all levels to do brief interventions (smoking cessation) with tobacco users.  The trainers are both excellent, one being a physician, both from Arizona. Website: www.healthcarepartnership.org

Oregon: Oregon provides training on all of the below listed topics through regional, statewide, and teleconferences. For many of the topics the trainers are the Tobacco Prevention Program Managers. Trainings on these topics also include support from contractors that work on media or policy.

For cessation specific to medical providers, OR has two options. The first is a contract with experts in training on 5As. These contractors then travel around the state and provide training to medical and dental clinic staff on the 5A's at their location. The second is a train the trainer model to build capacity in Hospitals (and potentially other organizations) in using 5As or Brief Motivational Interventions to help people move toward quitting. This training was originally done in partnership with the Hospital Association.

Oregon also provides monthly training calls on specific topics (youth, cessation, data, media, policy, etc.) which are required for new grantee coordinators. However, they tend to have all of our coordinators join us to just stay on top of the recent information.

During their annual meeting Oregon invites experts from around the country to come and lead discussions and provide the most recent information on new tobacco best practices, policy, tobacco laws, and general tools helpful in achieving their goals (coalition building, media, etc.).

Vermont: Here are some recommendations that VT would make based on their experiences:

Based on the experiences in Vermont, Dr. Tom Wolff is highly recommended for trainings related to community coalition capacity. He helped design the Community Toolbox and is an excellent trainer

While this category is not on the list, in Vermont, they have looked hard at the issues of economic disparity when training coalitions to engage smokers. They are subscribers to the work of Dr. Ruby Payne, and her notion of generational poverty. To learn more, go to their website – www.ahaprocess.com. Jodi Pfarr is a highly recommended trainer from that group.

Washington: In Washington State, the tobacco prevention trainings are hosted by the Tobacco Prevention Resource Center (TPRC).  All the trainings scheduled from now until July are listed the TPRC web site www.tobaccoprc.org.

The Washington training report offers a complete listing of trainings that TPRC has offered over the past couple years.  The materials available from past trainings are posted on the TPRC web site at http://www.tobaccoprc.org/presmaterials.cfm.

Wyoming: In Spring of 2007, WTWC hosted a Spring Sponsorship Training to educate and enhance programming for staff overseeing 23 counties and the Wind River Reservation. The program content consisted of a panel of five people who work within the events and rodeos all over Wyoming who were willing to answer questions by the attendees, some of which were pre-planned, Andrea Craig Dodge, Director of National Buck Tobacco Program presented on the National efforts to reduce and eliminate Smokeless Tobacco industry sponsorship while Jennifer Wilson, Director of Oklahoma's SWAT team also provided presentations and trainings with her unique expertise in mobilizing youth advocates. It was an excellent training that started at a banquet dinner and continued the entire next day.

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