HealthBeat: Occupational Health & Wellness News from MWorks & MFit

MFit News

UMHS Counselors Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialists

Linda Thomas, Manager, U-M Health System Tobacco Consultation Service

Tobacco kills more people in Michigan than AIDS, alcohol, auto accidents, fires, cocaine, heroin, murders and suicides – COMBINED. As health plans and healthcare facilities work to assist tobacco users, there is a movement to ensure the people doing treatment are qualified and work within the realm of best practices. One outcome has been the movement toward certification of Tobacco Treatment Specialists. Counselors with the UMHS Tobacco Consultation Services (TCS), an MFit affiliate, have placed themselves in the “ready” position by completing the training and certification process through the University of Massachusetts program.

Each counselor must first complete a 30 hour online course. With completion of the coursework and passing of the three exams, the next stage is to attend the 40 hour intensive training in Massachusetts. After the training is a written exam. Once the exam has been passed, the next step is providing a case study showing the treatment steps when working with a client. The last step is passing an oral exam that includes everything previously covered and the case study. To maintain certification, counselors must attend 12 CEU credit hours of training per year.

To date three TCS counselors are certified tobacco treatment specialists, one more is completing her case study, and another will attend the intensive training in March.

If you are interested in offering your employees a tobacco cessation program in conjunction with an ongoing wellness program, contact MFit Corporate Wellness at 734-975-3049 or visit www.med.umich.edu/mfit/corporate.

MFit’s Gasaway Invited to Present at Health Promotion Conference

MFit’s Janice Gasaway, wellness coordinator for MFit Corporate Wellness, has been invited to make a peer presentation at the American Journal of Health Promotion’s conference in San Diego, March 5 – 8, 2008. Ms. Gasaway will present the outcomes of the U-M Facilities and Operations Department health promotion program.