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Should we pay people to help them quit smoking?

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According to an article on HealthDay News, researchers conducted a study, which was published on May 13th, 2015, in the New England Journal of Medicine, and they found that paying smokers to quit seems to work better than offering them free counseling and nicotine replacement therapy! In fact, researchers found: "Sixteen percent of those assigned to reward programs were still smoke free after six months, compared with 10 percent in the deposit programs and 6 percent in the usual care group."

The study indicates: "Roughly 18 percent of Americans smoke regularly -- a percentage that hasn't changed in more than a decade despite the proliferation of new therapies. We desperately need new interventions, and this study shows that financial incentives are likely as good, if not better, than other available interventions," said lead author Dr. Scott Halpern, an assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Halpern said, "We found that reward-based programs were more effective overall because many people didn't want to sign up for the programs requiring deposits."

Does your organization offer a smoking cessation program to its clientele? If so, do you offer free-counseling and/or nicotine replacement therapy? 

If so, perhaps it's time to think about offering a reward-based program. For more information on the study and to read the ARTICLE on HealthDay News, by Steven Reinberg, the HealthDay Reporter, click the link.  

Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Grant Application

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2015-2016 Title I, Part C Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Grant Application

The Texas Education Agency opened the 2015-2016 Title I, Part C Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Applicant Designation and Certification (ADC) form on May 18, 2015. The 2015-2016 Title I, Part C Carl D. Perkins ADC form, once certified and submitted by eligible applicants, will activate the 2015-2016 Title I, Part C Carl D Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Grant Application when it becomes available in eGrants on or about May 29, 2015.

Allocations for eligible applicants are available and can be viewed on the Division of Grants Administration’s Federal Entitlements page.

Eligible applicants must apply through the eGrants system by 5:00 p.m. Central Time, August 28, 2015.

Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information, including how to apply for the grant.

USA Today reports: HHS to fund more naloxone programs to halt opioid deaths

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According to an article by: Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY:

"With death from heroin and prescription narcotics at epidemic levels, Health and Human Services officials said the department would put more federal money and effort behind programs to distribute naloxone, an overdose-reversal medicine to first responders and family members.

The push for naloxone, which includes an expanded grants program for states to purchase the drug, is part of a new initiative to be announced Thursday by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to reduce deaths from prescription painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, and heroin. Heroin-related overdose deaths increased 39% from 2012 to 2013, and prescription opioids accounted for more than a third of all overdose deaths in 2013.

The HHS effort will focus on curbing overprescribing and inappropriate prescribing of pain pills, expansion of overdose reversal programs, and increasing access to treatment programs that use medication as well as counseling to help addicts.

For years, HHS has funding and pushed for a broad array of programs to combat prescription drug abuse, Richard Frank, assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, said.

"What I think is different here, we've decided to put focus on a limited set of areas. We're going to double down on the areas where the evidence suggests we can have significant impact," Frank said.

Police departments, emergency medical technicians and other first responders around the country have begun carrying naloxone, once known by its brand name, Narcan, which can block and reverse the effects of heroin or an opioid painkiller when a user overdoses. The training and medicine can be expensive. States may use substance abuse block grant funding to purchase naloxone. President Obama's budget proposes an additional $12 million in grants to purchase the medicine and equip and train first responders.

Read more: USA Today reports: HHS to fund more naloxone programs to halt opioid deaths