Cedars-Sinai's Quit Alliance Trains Community Organizations to Help LGBTQIA+ Community Members Quit Tobacco
LOS ANGELES — Through The Quit Alliance, Cedars-Sinai Cancer's Community Outreach and Engagement office is working with community organizations, healthcare providers and tobacco cessation specialists to train staff to identify tobacco use and connect people with affirming, evidence-based resources to help them quit, with a focus on LGBTQ+ communities, where tobacco use rates are higher. The initiative is funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tobacco Prevention Program and the California Tobacco Control Program.
"The Quit Alliance is really a network of community organizations that we work with — an alliance that is affirming to different populations," said Zul Surani, associate director of Community Outreach and Engagement and of the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity at Cedars-Sinai. "We're focused on LGBTQ+ communities because we found that they have higher tobacco use rates, while there was very little in terms of providing affirming support and services to help people quit."
Victor Crisanto, a certified tobacco cessation specialist at Cedars-Sinai, leads trainings for nurses, medical assistants, case managers, health educators and outreach staff, covering the science of nicotine addiction, the health effects of tobacco use and an "ask, advise, refer" approach. The alliance also offers workshops for community members on setting a quit date, managing cravings and withdrawal, and building a support system, and connects people with one-on-one and group counseling, nicotine replacement therapies, cessation medications and resources such as Kick It California. "Everybody has a different quit journey," Crisanto said.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Cedars-Sinai 医疗中心 Mark Goodson 大楼（资料图）。Jengod 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Cedars-Sinai's Mark Goodson Building in Los Angeles (file photo). Photo by Jengod, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
