Drugs and Alcohol Service users Help to Exit Smoking HTML Summary (Research in a nutshell) Despite the continued global decline in adult tobacco prevalence, rates continue to be significantly higher in groups with problematic drug or alcohol use (PDA). It is estimated that people with alcohol, drug or mental health problems account for approximately half of all smoking deaths. In the UK, there are free stop smoking services for the general population. However, these services have been criticized as unsuitable for people in recovery from PDA due to their design, time-limited support, strict requirement for smoking abstinence and lack of consideration of harm reduction approaches. This has led to calls for alternative approaches to support this marginalized and underserved group. This research study seeks to respond to this call by co-creating and feasibility testing a tailored, trauma-informed service specifically for people seeking help for PDA, who are not in immediate crisis, and who may also want to reduce or stop their tobacco smoking. Our mixed-method study design has two parts: The development study (part one) will use participatory peer research methods to work with the target client group and key stakeholders involved in service delivery, commissioning, and policy to design the service (intervention). The feasibility study (part two) will test the delivery of the intervention protocol and capture data that will enable the assessment of whether progression to a future pilot randomized control trial is merited. The outcome of this study will be a theoretically informed, co-created intervention with the potential to improve population health by supporting people with problematic drug or alcohol use to reduce or stop tobacco smoking. Key People Name Role Fiona Dobbie Principal Investigator Martine Miller Research Fellow Aoife McKenna Research Fellow Alison McCallum Professor of Public Health Linda Bauld Professor of Public Health Deborah Robson Senior Lecturer Claire Glenn Senior Health Promotion Officer, NHS Lothian Brian Pringle Independent Consultant Anne Hanley Project Worker, West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service Mark Vance General Manager, West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service Contact Martine Miller - Research Fellow Key publications DASHES Protocol: Development and Feasibility Testing of a Tailored Community Programme to Support People in Recovery from Problematic Alcohol and Drug Use to Cut Down or Stop Smoking Using Co-Creation https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13709 Partners and Funders West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service NHS Lothian Funder: CSO: HIPS/21/60 Timeline Start date: May 2022 End date: April 2024 How long is the project: 24 months Scientific themes (keywords) Tobacco control, tobacco reduction, harm reduction, public health, peer-led, intervention development, drug and alcohol recovery, trauma-informed health promotion Methodology keywords Mixed method, intervention development and evaluation, focus groups, individual interviews, intervention delivery observations, smoking cessation, smoking reduction This article was published on 2024-09-24
HTML Summary (Research in a nutshell) Despite the continued global decline in adult tobacco prevalence, rates continue to be significantly higher in groups with problematic drug or alcohol use (PDA). It is estimated that people with alcohol, drug or mental health problems account for approximately half of all smoking deaths. In the UK, there are free stop smoking services for the general population. However, these services have been criticized as unsuitable for people in recovery from PDA due to their design, time-limited support, strict requirement for smoking abstinence and lack of consideration of harm reduction approaches. This has led to calls for alternative approaches to support this marginalized and underserved group. This research study seeks to respond to this call by co-creating and feasibility testing a tailored, trauma-informed service specifically for people seeking help for PDA, who are not in immediate crisis, and who may also want to reduce or stop their tobacco smoking. Our mixed-method study design has two parts: The development study (part one) will use participatory peer research methods to work with the target client group and key stakeholders involved in service delivery, commissioning, and policy to design the service (intervention). The feasibility study (part two) will test the delivery of the intervention protocol and capture data that will enable the assessment of whether progression to a future pilot randomized control trial is merited. The outcome of this study will be a theoretically informed, co-created intervention with the potential to improve population health by supporting people with problematic drug or alcohol use to reduce or stop tobacco smoking. Key People Name Role Fiona Dobbie Principal Investigator Martine Miller Research Fellow Aoife McKenna Research Fellow Alison McCallum Professor of Public Health Linda Bauld Professor of Public Health Deborah Robson Senior Lecturer Claire Glenn Senior Health Promotion Officer, NHS Lothian Brian Pringle Independent Consultant Anne Hanley Project Worker, West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service Mark Vance General Manager, West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service Contact Martine Miller - Research Fellow Key publications DASHES Protocol: Development and Feasibility Testing of a Tailored Community Programme to Support People in Recovery from Problematic Alcohol and Drug Use to Cut Down or Stop Smoking Using Co-Creation https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13709 Partners and Funders West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service NHS Lothian Funder: CSO: HIPS/21/60 Timeline Start date: May 2022 End date: April 2024 How long is the project: 24 months Scientific themes (keywords) Tobacco control, tobacco reduction, harm reduction, public health, peer-led, intervention development, drug and alcohol recovery, trauma-informed health promotion Methodology keywords Mixed method, intervention development and evaluation, focus groups, individual interviews, intervention delivery observations, smoking cessation, smoking reduction
