Statewide Education and Outreach Programs
Since the launch of the UW-CTRI Outreach Program in 2001 as part of a comprehensive, statewide tobacco control program, UW-CTRI outreach specialists have worked with virtually every healthcare system and insurer—as well as hundreds of clinics and dozens of hospitals across Wisconsin—to ensure tobacco users throughout the state have access to affordable tobacco treatment to quit smoking or chewing tobacco.
These outreach professionals have offices in Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Milwaukee, and Madison. They provide training and technical assistance to clinics, hospitals and health systems to create sustainable improvements to the way they offer tobacco treatment. It’s all based on research summarized in the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence.
It’s working. Smoking prevalence in Wisconsin has dropped from 24.1% in 2000 to 18% in 2014—a net decrease of about 100,000 adult smokers and savings of more than $150 million in health-care costs since 2000. Read more about the program’s impact in the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
For more information on how clinicians can help patients quit smoking, click here.
