RELEASE: June 15, 2005

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Department of Human Services (DHS) Commissioner James M. Davy and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), University Behavioral HealthCare President and CEO Christopher Kosseff today announced a grant to fund a smoking cessation program for people with mental illness.

UMDNJ was awarded a $100,000 American Legacy Foundation Grant to fund the program. UMDNJ will partner with DHS, Division of Mental Health Services and the Mental Health Association in NJ to develop a smoking cessation program.

“Excessive smoking can be a major problem among people with mental illness,” said Davy. “This is an innovative way to address this and have a positive impact on the lives of people with mental illness.”

Through the Consumers Helping Others Improve Their Condition by Ending Smoking (CHOICES) Program, mental health peer counselors will be trained to help other people with mental illness quit smoking.

“Tobacco addiction is the most common addiction among people with co-occurring mental illness and among people with other substance addictions,” said Kosseff.

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Dr. Jill Williams, of the Department of Psychiatry at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , will lead the project. Williams, a leading national expert in tobacco dependence among people with mental illness, has partnered with the Division of Mental Health Services on several successful initiatives to address physical wellness among mental health consumers.

“Smokers with psychiatric disorders consume nearly half of all cigarettes in the United States ,” said Carolyn Beauchamp, President, and Mental Health Association in NJ. “Only recently have public health specialists and clinical researchers begun to better understand and treat this major problem.”

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