Tribal and community partnerships to end the tobacco epidemic: Part 6 in a series on tobacco use and prevention for Alaska Native people
May 22, 2015Categories: Healthy People and Prevention
As you have seen over this series of articles, fighting the tobacco epidemic in Alaska requires many people and organizations working together. ANTHC’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program (ANTHC TPC) collaborates with a wide variety of partners to address the issue of tobacco in local communities, to share tobacco-related resources and to provide training opportunities for advocates and health care professionals. Our partners include our Tribal health organizations for trainings and technical assistance to improve systems to “Ask, Advise and Refer” for tobacco use. These training sessions are important because they help increase access to tobacco treatment services and grow the number of advocates working on tobacco prevention across Alaska. We also provide technical assistance to more than 15 organizations receiving State of Alaska grant funds to implement community and workplace based tobacco control initiatives. Recently, ANTHC TPC staff assisted with a training event in the Mat-Su region where partners from the local health foundation, Tribes, and behavioral health organization came together to discuss opportunities to integrate tobacco treatment into behavioral health settings. The ANTHC TPC Program is also closely connected to statewide partners such as the Alaska Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), the statewide coalition that assists with building advocates to be spokespeople for tobacco-related policy in Alaska. ATCA’s vision is A Tobacco-free Alaska. ATCA includes various workgroups such as a smoke-free housing group, an Alaska Native Tobacco Advisory workgroup, a Smokeless Tobacco workgroup and a Summit workgroup. This year, ATCA hosted their annual statewide summit May 20-22 in the U-Med District in Anchorage, for partners to gather and celebrate progress in tobacco prevention and learn about best and promising practices for reducing tobacco use in Alaska communities. On Friday, May 22, the Alaska Native Health Campus will host a wellness picnic and smoke-free celebration to recognize our partners and their work. Our work to combat tobacco use in Alaska would not be nearly as widespread without the help of our Tribal and community partners. To learn more about partnership opportunities with the ANTHC Tobacco Prevention and Control Program email tobacco@anthc.org. To learn more about the Alaska Tobacco Control Alliance go to: http://www.alaskatca.org/.