Addressing Family Smoking in Child Health Care Settings

OBJECTIVE: To discuss strategies for integrating evidence-based tobacco use screening, cessation assistance, and referral to outside services into visits with families in outpatient child health care settings. METHODS: Presentation of counseling scenarios used in the Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure (CEASE) training video and commentary. RESULTS: Demonstrated strategies include: eliciting information about interest and readiness to quit smoking, respectfully setting an agenda to discuss smoking, tailoring advice and education to the specific circumstances, keeping the dialogue open, prescribing cessation medication, helping the smoker set an action plan for cessation, enrolling the smoker in free telephone counseling through the state quitline, and working with family members to establish a completely smoke-free home and car. Video demonstrations of these techniques are available at www.ceasetobacco.org. CONCLUSION: Child health care clinicians have a unique opportunity to address family smoking and can be most effective by adapting evidence-based tobacco cessation counseling strategies for visits in the pediatric setting.