• Historically, 2-3% of adult smokers will seek help through QUIT NOW tobacco cessation services. It is important to make these services available and as barrier-free as possible, as they can double or triple smokers’ chances of quitting versus ‘cold-turkey’. The Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program (TUPAC) tracks the percentage of smokers accessing QUIT NOW to ensure that we are successfully promoting availability of these services to tobacco users, their families, and health care providers.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has set a long-term target for states to reach 7% of tobacco users through QUIT NOW. However, this target assumes that states have the minimum recommended funding levels for comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programming. However, only two states have this level of funding, and most states only reach about 2% of tobacco users.
• Locally, health care providers and clinics are being recruited to participate in our Health Systems Training and Outreach Project, which provides technical assistance in screening and administering brief tobacco interventions to tobacco users, as well as referring people to QUIT NOW.
• Approximately 267,000 adults in New Mexico smoke cigarettes. In FY19-Q1, a total of 1,602 adults who smoke cigarettes enrolled in QUIT NOW or DEJELO YA (Spanish) tobacco cessation services, representing 0.6% of the total number of adult smokers in the state. The FY19-Q1 milestone of 0.6% was met.
• In the next quarter, the Tobacco Program will conduct a strategic planning session with the cessation services provider and evaluation team to review progress, lessons learned in FY18, and to discuss quality improvement opportunities for FY19. In addition, media and marketing efforts will be reviewed and updated to ensure steady promotion of QUIT NOW services throughout the year.
   

• Optum Health (tobacco cessation services provider)
• Media Matched (media contractor)
• TUPAC evaluation team
• TUPAC statewide contractors
• Health care and behavioral health providers
• Federally-Qualified Health Centers and other clinics
   

The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends the following interventions to reduce adult smoking:

• Increasing the unit price of tobacco products.
• Mass media campaigns when combined with other interventions.
• Multi-component cessation interventions that include telephone support.
• Health care provider reminder systems for tobacco cessation.
• Reducing client out-of-pocket costs for cessation therapies.
• Smoke-free policies to reduce tobacco use.
   

• Develop and implement a training and outreach program to support health systems change to make tobacco cessation interventions more routine in New Mexico Community Health Centers (CHCs).
• Advise tobacco users to quit and refer those ready to make a quit attempt to appropriate treatment resources.
   

FY19 Milestones (cumulative): FY19 Target = 2.5%
Q1: 0.6%. Met - In FY19-Q1, 0.6% of adults in New Mexico who smoke cigarettes accessed cessation services.
Q2: 1.3%
Q3: 1.9%
Q4: 2.5%
 

NMDOH’s Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program successfully reached 2.8% of adult smokers through its QUIT NOW and DEJELO YA tobacco cessation services in FY18, better than the annual target of 2.5%. Although cigarette smoking continues to decline in the state, there are still over 260,000 adult cigarette smokers. Of the remaining smokers, about 2 in 3 have attempted to quit in the past year and 8 in 10 say that they plan on quitting in the next 6 months.  The strong interest in smoking cessation among remaining smokers points to a continued need and opportunity to reach and serve additional people through QUIT NOW and DEJELO YA. Activities in FY18 included consistent availability of cessation services through the entire fiscal year, mass media and targeted media to promote use of the services, training of health care providers, and the ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and tailoring of services. NMDOH Tobacco Cessation Services include quit coaching/counseling, free nicotine medications, phone- and web-based support, as well as services in Spanish.