Pro-Change Behavior Systems, Inc. announced that beginning today, Blackstone Valley Community Health Care will offer Pro-Change’s award-winning NCQA-certified Smoking Cessation Program to patients, employees, and community members.
The evidence-based, online Smoking Cessation Program includes tailored text messaging and is designed to help all smokers–including the 80% who are not ready to quit or are getting ready to quit. The program now features all content in Spanish.
Blackstone Valley’s goal is to recruit every smoker into the program over the coming year and to produce a 35% cessation rate. The availability of the program, which is entitled Fresh Start, will be promoted via personal invitations from members of the care team, including physicians, nurses, dentists, mental health counselors, front desk staff, and Vista workers; email invitations; and custom posters and other informational pieces throughout the health centers.
Offering this population-based Smoking Cessation Program is part of a larger effort at Blackstone Valley Community Health Care to transform health care delivery in Rhode Island by deploying the first Neighborhood Health Station in the country. The Neighborhood Health Station is a new kind of community organization that will improve the health of individuals by delivering high-quality, accessible primary care and social services to everyone in the Central Falls neighborhood. The Neighborhood Health Station aims to improve community health by tailoring services to the specific needs of the neighborhoods they serve and by outreach efforts designed to encourage the entire community to receive care. Fresh Start will be made available at no charge to all patients and employees of Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, Inc.
Ray Lavoie, CEO of Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, Inc. said, “As an Accountable Entity, we are able and committed to improving the health of all our patients. Reducing smoking prevalence in the population we care for using this ground-breaking approach is the first of many innovations we mean to use to create healthier people in Central Falls and Pawtucket.”
Dr. Michael Fine, Blackstone Valley’s Senior Clinical and Population Health Officer, says “We are thrilled to be enhancing population health by offering the evidence-based Fresh Start program. We hope the work we are doing here will serve as a model for other Federally Qualified Health Centers and Neighborhood Health Stations.”
“It is our pleasure to be partnering with Blackstone Valley Community Health Care to support smokers on their journey to quitting,” said Dr. Sara Johnson, co-President and CEO of Pro-Change. We share Dr. Fine’s enthusiasm for the potential to replicate this successful collaboration.”