DC Quit Now
Partners & Providers
Supporting Your
Clients and Patients’
Quit Smoking Efforts
DC Quit Now
Partners & Providers
Supporting Your
Clients and Patients’
Quit Smoking Efforts
DC QuitNow
Partners & Providers
Supporting Your
Clients and Patients’
Quit Smoking Efforts
If you’re visiting this page, you’re likely supporting residents of the District of Columbia who are working to quit smoking and stay tobacco-free. That kind of support is vital to smoking cessation success—and to the mission of DC QuitNow. Whether you’re sharing DC resources for smoking or encouraging the use of nicotine replacement options, you’re making a real difference in the fight against smoking-related cancer. For that, we want to say “Thank You.”
Referral Resources for a Community Effort
Helping people in the District of Columbia to quit smoking and stay tobacco-free is a community-wide effort. If you work with residents who face higher rates of smoking—including older African Americans, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people who use drugs—you can refer them to our Quit for Life program.
Together, we can support effective smoking cessation with access to DC’s smoking cessation resources.
DC Quit for Life invites you to support your clients and customers who are ready to quit using tobacco.
Staying tobacco free means better health outcomes and other benefits for your clients and customers. It also helps us all. The CDC says that “tobacco control is a public health ‘best buy.’ For every dollar spent on tobacco prevention, states can reduce tobacco-related health care expenditures and hospitalizations by up to $55.
These resources will help you promote the DC Department of Health’s Quit for Life program.
Quit Smoking Resources For Community Partners
- Order Free DCQuitNow Marketing Materials
- DCTFC Fact Sheet: The impact of Tobacco use in DC
- CDC: “Extinguishing the Tobacco Epidemic in District of Columbia”
- Truth initiative report: What you need to quit smoking
- CDC Fact Sheet: How African American Parents Can Protect Children from Secondhand Smoke
- Truth initiative report: Experimental Tobacco Marketing
- The Community Guide. The Guide to Community Preventive Services. A free resource to help you choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in your community. It includes systematic reviews of tobacco prevention and control interventions, including for cessation and secondhand smoke exposure.
Healthcare Providers Are Essential To Smoking Cessation
Healthcare providers play an essential role in helping people quit using tobacco. Because tobacco use and dependence is a chronic, relapsing condition, like other chronic diseases, your patients may require repeated intervention and long-term support.
Most people who use tobacco want to quit, but most try to quit multiple times before succeeding. In the District, more than one-third of current smokers attempted to quit at least once in the past year. As a healthcare professional, you can help your patients stay tobacco free by reminding them that every quit attempt is a step closer to quitting.
Counseling and medication can double a patient’s chances of quitting, so the District supports the Quit for Life program. It combines evidence-based approaches to staying tobacco free, including a personalized Quit Plan for each participant to give them the best chances of quitting. Their plan outlines a combination of counseling, medications, and daily advice and support to help them quit and stay tobacco free.
Quit Smoking Resources for Providers
These resources provide suggestions and free resources to assist you in supporting your patients in their quit attempts.
- For a more complete overview and lots of resources, first visit the CDC’s provider resources page
- A Practical Guide to Help Your Patients Quit Using Tobacco. This guide provides simple steps and suggested language that you can use to briefly intervene with patients who use tobacco.
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Tobacco Cessation Recommendations. Read the USPSTF’s most recent recommendations for tobacco smoking cessation interventions for adults, including pregnant women.
- The Million Hearts Tobacco Cessation Change Package is a quality improvement tool created by the CDC. It presents a list of process improvements and gives clinical teams a practical resource to increase the reach and effectiveness of tobacco cessation interventions.
- The Tobacco Health Systems Change Starter Toolkit for Clinics provides key resources and practical tools to help clinics and health systems improve how they address tobacco use.
Counseling and medication can double a patient’s chances of quitting
Quit Smoking Tools
Use these tools to help your clients and patients quit smoking.
This course, intended for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals, describes clinical strategies, best practices, and community resources that health care practitioners can use to ensure the best results of tobacco cessation therapy for their patients.
Upon completion of this course, the participant should be able to:
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Describe the evolution of the tobacco product landscape
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Discuss the fundamentals of tobacco health effects and nicotine addiction
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Understand the combined behavioral and pharmacology treatment best practices
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Describe the newer strategies with cessation medications and behavioral treatments
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Discuss brief motivational approaches for client engagement and referral
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Summarize key conclusions of the 2020 Surgeon General’s report on smoking cessation
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Identify gaps in the treatment literature
CRE is available for this course:
- 2.00 ACPE Pharmacist
- 2.00 ACPE Pharmacy technician
- 2.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
- 2.00 Completion
DC Health Online Training provides access to three elearning courses (registration required):
- Addressing Tobacco in DC Families: Helping Your Patients Quit
- Effecting Change with the 2As and R: The Brief Tobacco Intervention for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Care Providers
- How to Refer Your Patients to a State Quitline.
Brief Tobacco Intervention (PDF) provides two mnemonic checklists developed by American Medical Association, CDC, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and National Cancer Institute for use with clients and patients:
- 2As and R (Ask, Advise, Refer)
- 5 As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange)
Working Together For District Residents’ Health
DC Health’s Tobacco Control Program Visit DC Tobacco Control Program works closely with government, community, and clinical partners to ensure that residents of all ages can achieve health by preventing the initiation of tobacco use, promoting cessation of tobacco, eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke, and advancing health equity by identifying and eliminating commercial tobacco product-related inequities and disparities. If you need technical assistance or more information about our programs, contact us.
DCQuitNow Office Hours is a new initiative for healthcare and community partners to ask questions, learn about resources, and get updates on DC’s Tobacco Cessation services. Every Wednesday from 11 – 12.
Click hereJoin an after hours session to join an Office Hours session.