Memorial Hospital/UMMC Thank Mississippi Representatives for Tobacco Treatment Program Funding

January 4, 2010

GULFPORT, Miss. – If you are ready to quit using cigarettes, cigars, pipes or smokeless tobacco, help is available in Mississippi. Memorial Hospital has a tobacco treatment clinic that is part of the state-wide system of clinics supported by the ACT Center for Tobacco Treatment, Education and Research, a program of the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC).

In 2004, Memorial implemented the ACT Center Tobacco Treatment Program. Since its inception, the program attendance has doubled in the last five years. The program provides an evidence-based treatment including supportive counseling by well-trained professionals, and medications approved for treating tobacco dependence by the FDA, which is paid for by funding from the Mississippi Legislature and Department of Health. The program and medications are provided at no cost to participants. Memorial Cessation Program classes meet once a week for six weeks with a follow-up session on the eighth week. Participants are followed by telephone for their first year and may also attend any future class for further support.

This is the type of program Mississippi needs to support to help decrease health care costs