July 2, 2020

We hope you enjoy this monthly newsletter from the Training & Education Program at the Center for Tobacco Independence.

Available Trainings Summer is our planning season! We are excited about the many trainings that we are beginning to develop already. Please keep an eye out for news of our fall offerings over the next weeks.  ONLINE COURSES We have several self-paced online courses available, for which you are able to get free CMEs. Click on the titles to check them out. Increasing Quit Success Using Tobacco Treatment Medications (.5 CMEs) Tobacco Treatment Medications – Myths vs. Facts (.5 CMEs) Tobacco Products, Prevalence, Burden and Environmental Factors (.5 CMEs) * (Scroll down for more information about this brand new course!) WEBINARS We have many recorded webinars available! Find them HERE . 

What's the Research? Stress Response Among African Americans Quitting Tobacco We know that stress is strongly associated with tobacco use. We also know that African Americans experience significant environmental stressors in our fraught society. Furthermore, African Americans have more difficulty quitting tobacco as compared to whites. One study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, sought to understand the racial differences in physiological stress biomarkers during tobacco treatment. The observed changes in cortisol levels in African American subjects suggested that environmental stressors affected their quit attempts. The author noted that these subjects were more likely to relapse to smoking during the study, and that their physiological stress response has implications for racial differences in smoking relapse. The author further pointed out that the toll of cumulative stress in this population may predict morbidity and death, especially among those at risk for tobacco-associated illnesses. They called for culturally specific interventions to address this risk factor. Read the article HERE.

Tobacco Use in the Native American/Alaska Native Community

Did you know that Native American/Alaska Native adults use tobacco more than any other racial or ethnic group in the US? (This is distinct from these groups' cultural use of tobacco.) More than 1 in 5 currently smoke cigarettes. When it comes to youth, Native American and Alaska Native high schoolers have the highest current cigarette smoking rate of any other race or ethnicity at 16.2%, compared to 5.8% overall. Tobacco use is associated with heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death among Native American and Alaskan Native adults. To read more, and to download a fact sheet from Truth Initiative, click HERE. There is a lot to know about groups that are at special risk for health disparities. Learn more by taking our new online course (outlined below).

* New Online Course Now Available! Continued from sidebar above

We are excited to present our newest online course: Tobacco Products, Prevalence, Burden and Environmental Factors. Earn a total of .5 free CMEs and learn some of the foundational information that we teach in our Basic Skills Trainings. This course uses interactive activities and quizzes to provide a thorough introduction to the topic. You will meet several characters who will introduce you to the range of common tobacco products, the prevalence of their use, tobacco’s burden on specific populations and environmental factors that contribute to use. Find the course HERE .

Selected Resource

Tobacco Treatment Services Guide - by County To see a list of tobacco treatment services offered throughout Maine, feel free to download and print this Tobacco Treatment Services Guide. Every effort has been made to provide thorough and accurate information about available programs. Click HERE or on the image to access the guide.

 For more information about the Training & Education Program, visit: www.CTIMaine.org

MaineHealth Center for Tobacco Independence (CTI) Tobacco Treatment Training and Education Program CTI provides education and training on evidence-based tobacco treatment to healthcare and behavioral health professionals in Maine on behalf of the Maine CDC, DHHS. Our goal is to improve access to high quality, best practice tobacco treatment and create a network of tobacco treatment specialists across the state.