Survey of Smoking Cessation Services in Canadian Addiction Programs

Many alcohol and drug treatment programs now offer smoking cessation (SC) services to their clients. Little is known about the prevalence of such services in Canadian addiction programs. A telephone survey was conducted of all Canadian adult substance abuse programs with outpatient, day program, and residential treatment to determine: (a) whether the program offered help in quitting smoking; (b) the type of SC services; (c) the overall priority placed on quitting smoking; and (d) for residential programs, what type of smoking ban (indoors, outdoors, or both), if any, is imposed. Over half (54%) of the 223 programs that responded to the survey reported providing help in quitting smoking. Twenty-three programs had formal SC services, most often in the form of group treatment. The majority of programs surveyed stated their program placed 'very little' emphasis on smoking. Smoking was relatively unrestricted in residential programs. The implications of these findings for substance abuse treatment are discussed.