Adapting and Developing Educational Best Practices and Curricula for Practitioners Providing Aboriginal Tobacco Cessation Interventions

Chair

Marilyn Herie, Director, TEACH Project, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Presenters

Brian Siegers, Caroline Lidstone-Jones, Jeff D’Hondt, Wayne Skinner, Kevin Fitz-Maurice, Peter Menzies, Peter Hillary Connolly, Peter Selby, Robin Chapchuk, Jean-Francoise Crepault, Richard Aubin, Yvonne Corbiere, Lorraine Fry, Vern Harper, Jan Longboat, Dianne McKay, Anne Meloche, Monique Raymond, Harry Snowboy, Roland St. Germain

Brief Description

Given the complexity of current smokers and evidence of a dose response relationship between intensity and duration of smoking cessation counselling, there is a need to offer intensive interventions as an adjunct to brief screening and advice. The TEACH project provides university-accredited training in intensive cessation interventions, however there is an important gap in core knowledge and skills needed to address tobacco cessation in Aboriginal communities and to evaluate training and assess impacts of program delivery at the community level. Curriculum materials should contribute to practitioners’ understanding of historical contributing factors to the high tobacco use prevalence in many Aboriginal communities, the ceremonial and spiritual roles of tobacco among many First Nations, and systemic barriers to change. Evaluation approaches should emphasize intervention-based, action research, with involvement of practitioners and communities in the design and implementation of research/evaluation approaches. This ten-hour working session will be held in two parts over two days.

During Day 1, invited speakers will discuss the following topics:

Traditional use of tobacco among Aboriginal Peoples
Tobacco prevalence and historical contributing factors in Aboriginal communities
Panel discussion with practitioners delivering cessation interventions to Aboriginal people (urban and on-reserve) re: best or promising practices in cessation interventions and training needs (knowledge and skills)
Systemic barriers to tobacco cessation interventions in Aboriginal communities, and accompanying evaluation and research issues and challenges
Past and current tobacco intervention initiatives and evaluations/research focusing on Aboriginal Peoples (e.g., Curve Lake First Nation, Wabamo Aboriginal Health Access Centre, Aboriginal Cancer Care Unit, Cancer Care Ontario, and others TBA)
Panel discussion: Integrating learning and discussion from the day focusing on two key questions: (1) What are the key issues/topics/practices in developing a curriculum for professionals working with Aboriginal clients/communities? (2) How do we, as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers, build alliances with Aboriginal communities to improve research/evaluation of Aboriginal tobacco cessation initiatives?(Development of a working agenda for Day 2).

During Day 2, the invited speakers will join with other subject matter and research/evaluation experts to develop a curriculum for a two-day, classroom-based course on cessation interventions with Aboriginal clients and communities; and an accompanying research/evaluation plan for the training itself, and for the implementation of practitioners’ learning (i.e., the impacts of cessation treatment in Aboriginal communities). Day 2 AM will focus on the development of course learning objectives and an outline, and Day 2 PM will be devoted to identification/creation of an evaluation plan of the training and of the impact post-training at the community level.

Expected Outcome

The main outputs of the session will be a draft of a two-day curriculum with the following components: learning objectives, course outline, identification of resource materials, and guidelines for “better practices” in working with practitioners serving Aboriginal communities. The session will also result in the identification/creation of a culturally appropriate and relevant evaluation/research plan for assessing the effectiveness of the training and its broader impact on intervention outcomes in the community post-training.

Potential Impact

The potential impact of the session on the future of tobacco control initiatives will be to address and evaluate the important gap in cessation interventions and evaluation/research for practitioners working with Aboriginal populations – the development of consensus regarding “better practice” approaches in education, treatment and research, in the absence of a robust evidence base and research literature, is critical given the specific needs, issues and high tobacco prevalence in this population.

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