Success Stories

With her finger on the pulse of advocacy, practice improvement, and trends, Linda Rosenberg, CEO & President of the National Council for Behavioral Health, brings news from the field that you, or your work, can’t live without.

The Wisconsin Nicotine Treatment Integration Project (WiNTiP) has developed recommendations on how treatment facilities can become tobacco-free. This document provides mental health/substance use treatment programs and state governing bodies with a roadmap about specific elements and steps that collectively constitute a tobacco-free treatment setting. It emphasizes: 1) the importance of a tobacco-free healthy treatment setting; 2) the provision of evidence-based tobacco dependence treatment; and 3) the necessity of helping staff who have tobacco dependence to quit.

May 15, 2014 was a momentous day for North Carolina. On that day, North Carolina amended a rule to ban the use of tobacco anywhere on the grounds of a …

On March 4-6, 2012, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health convened the Living Well: Strategies for Tobacco Free Recovery Summit. The Summit brought together more than 160 Communities …

Success story about 10 mental health treatment facilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts that tested out a new Approach to Addressing Tobacco Use Through Organizational Change (ATTOC) – a 10-step process …

A 2015 Tobacco & Cancer Control Community of Practice (CoP) member, Way Station Outpatient Mental Health Clinic went Tobacco-Free in May of 2016. Way Station is a behavioral health organization …

With funding from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas, project directors Lorraine Reitzel, Cho Lam and Bill Wilson guided 18 mental health authorities (later joined by a nineteenth) through a new initiative to become 100 percent tobacco-free.

During the National Council for Behavioral Health’s 2017 National Conference, former Community of Practice alumni and webinar speakers of the National Behavioral Health Network for Tobacco & Cancer Control shared their experiences in addressing tobacco & cancer control with behavioral health populations.

On September 6 and 7, 2017, the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Department of Health, and Department of Children and Families, in partnership with the CDC’s National Behavioral Health …

The National Behavioral Health Network team shares lessons learned from the CDC’s 2017 Cancer Conference, sponsored by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.

As we mark the 40th anniversary of the first nationwide Great American Smokeout this Thursday, November 16, Tom Hill, Vice President of Practice Improvement at the National Council for Behavioral Health, speaks out about the importance of addressing tobacco within behavioral health populations.

A day and a half summit designed to leverage and create new opportunities for tobacco control and behavioral health initiatives, policies, and interventions. A selected group of industry leaders, influencers, …

In 2016, the National Behavioral Health Network for Tobacco & Cancer Control (NBHN) hosted two cancer educational sessions at a Washington, DC behavioral health provider, MBI Health Services. The sessions …

900,000 people. That’s almost 1 million individuals who smoke in the state of Kentucky – the state with the highest rate of smoking. People with mental illness make up a …

Individuals with mental health and substance use disorders use commercial tobacco at rates 2 to 4 times higher than the general population and have an increased risk of cancer. To …

“How will our members react to a tobacco-free campus?” “Will this change the way we interact with them?” “What if members stop coming?” These questions echo the concerns that behavioral …

The National Behavioral Health Network (NBHN) for Tobacco and Cancer Control, in January 2019, launched its 7th Community of Practice, the 2019 State Tobacco Control Community of Practice (CoP) in …

To support behavioral health facilities in going tobacco-free and expanding cessation support services, the National Behavioral Health Network (NBHN) for Tobacco and Cancer Control and the Center for Disease Control …

In Indiana, individuals with behavioral health conditions, such as those who experience poor mental health days or those who engage in heavy drinking, smoke at a rate twice as high …

Over the past decade, smoking prevalence has decreased among Alaskans; however, when looking at individuals with behavioral health conditions, the numbers tell a different story. While 22% of the general …

To support behavioral health facilities in going tobacco-free and expanding cessation support services, the National Behavioral Health Network (NBHN) for Tobacco and Cancer Control and the Center for Disease Control …

In August 2019, the National Behavioral Health Network for Tobacco & Cancer Control (NBHN) facilitated the launch of the 2019 Cancer and Behavioral Health Education training, a three-part in-person and …

Minnesota has long been distinguished as one of the healthiest states in the country, and the rates of tobacco use in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” are no exception: about …

Peer Specialists: Enhancing the Behavioral Health Workforce to Address Tobacco Cessation Interview with Heath Hayes, Senior Director – Communications and Strategic Engagement Oklahoma Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse …

On a brisk January morning, fourteen state tobacco control programs convened in Washington D.C., for the launch of the National Behavioral Health Network’s (NBHN) 2020 State Tobacco Control Community of …

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued through 2021, overwhelming public health agencies and other healthcare providers, twelve states, representing 8 of the 10 Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regions, …

Alongside public health agencies and healthcare providers who persistently navigated the third year of a global pandemic, eleven states embarked upon a six-month practice change intensive to further commit to …