Category 3 – Capacity building of healthcare professionals to create a workforce trained in tobacco dependence treatment at different levels of healthcare settings

The goal of the project is “to build a team of competent healthcare professionals with skills to provide evidence-based tobacco dependence treatment in a variety of healthcare settings across Maharashtra, India”. 

As a part of this project, training will be imparted by the internationally trained team of Tobacco Treatment Specialists (TTS) of the LifeFirst tobacco treatment service. The trained healthcare professionals will be able to practise tobacco dependence treatment on their own on an individual basis in their own clinics as well as by starting the treatment services within their organisations or institutions. They will be a part of the network of trained professionals and organisations that will be established through this project to share information, learnings, techniques and success stories.

LifeFirst is a tobacco dependence treatment service, built upon international evidence base, standards and protocols and adapted to the Indian context. Comprehensive counseling, pharmacotherapy and follow-up services are provided by Tobacco Treatment Specialists (TTS) that have been trained at Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Centre (NDC). The service aims to deliver a comprehensive, evidence based tobacco treatment at primary, secondary and tertiary health care settings for patients from all social strata. Currently the service is active in 2 tertiary care hospitals, 2 community-based primary health care centres and 10 Tuberculosis treatment centres (DOTS centres). Besides healthcare settings, the service is provided at 5 workplaces and 10 schools, with some site-specific modifications made to the process of service delivery. Training and research are important aspects of LifeFirst.