Implementing Trauma-Informed Training for Tobacco Use for Health Care Professionals in Two California Counties

A practice note by Mark Hawes, PhD, MSW, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Postdoctoral Scholar and Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Fellowship Co-Director at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education was just published in Health Promotion Practice.

 

To provide guidance on integrating trauma-informed principles into cessation treatment, the authors added a tobacco treatment module to the TAMAR trauma-informed care training and interviewed individuals representing program coordinators, tobacco treatment specialists, public health administrators, and research staff working with clients who had experienced trauma to understand how they applied it in practice. 

 

As a result of the training, participants added tobacco-related questions to intake forms, started using mindfulness exercises to help clients manage cravings, and integrated tobacco cessation as a client goal in treatment planning. Participants said TAMAR helped normalize conversations about trauma and tobacco use within professional teams and fostered shared understanding of the importance of professional development in trauma-informed care to support tobacco cessation.