Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Program - National Best Practice Support Service for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation

Overview

This grant opportunity contributes to and supports Australia’s international obligations under the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in particular Article 14 which obliges Parties to develop and disseminate comprehensive, evidence based measures to promote cessation of tobacco use and adequate treatment for tobacco dependence. Further, this grant opportunity supports the implementation of the National Tobacco Strategy (NTS) 2012-2018, and the Australian Government’s target to reduce smoking rates to below 10 per cent by 2025. One of the key priority’s is for the NTS is to provide greater access to a range of evidence-based nicotine and smoking cessation services and supports to help people quit. Cessation (and the maintenance of cessation) is promoted and supported through multiple channels as a result of Australia’s adoption of effective population-level measures, such as price policies, mass media campaigns, the prohibition of marketing and advertising and smokefree legislation. The implementation of systemic evidence-based smoking cessation care, which has been shown to be effective at reducing the population level smoking, is a missing piece in Australia’s world-leading approach to tobacco control. The grant opportunity will also support the new temporary nicotine and smoking cessation Medicare Benefits Scheme items which came into effect on 21 July 2021, and the implementation of education and training resources in nicotine and smoking cessation that are currently being developed by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, respectively.