Community health worker support to help people with serious mental illness quit smoking
Official title: Evaluation of Community Health Worker Support to Improve Tobacco Use Disorder Outcomes in Medicaid Beneficiaries with Serious Mental Illness
Funded at Massachusetts General Hospital · NIH-11225257 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project trains Medicaid behavioral health staff to act as community health workers who help adults with serious mental illness stop using tobacco.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | May 1, 2026 |
| Project end | February 28, 2031 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $740,451 |
| NIH project number | 1R01DA061887-01A1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11225257 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults with serious mental illness who are enrolled in Medicaid, currently use tobacco, and receive care through the partnering behavioral health sites are the ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not enrolled in the partnered Medicaid ACO or who are not interested in quitting tobacco are unlikely to benefit from this program.
What this research studies
You would work with a trained community health worker who is part of your Medicaid behavioral health team to get coaching, help accessing stop-smoking medicines, and support for social needs that make quitting harder. The program gives brief training so existing staff can function as CHWs and coordinates with your clinical providers for medications and follow-up. About 937 adults with serious mental illness who smoke will be enrolled through Medicaid behavioral health sites and followed for smoking, heart health, and mental health outcomes. The team will compare how often people use cessation treatments and achieve abstinence when they receive this CHW support versus usual care.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this approach could raise quit rates, improve cardiovascular and mental health, and reduce premature deaths among Medicaid patients with serious mental illness.
How similar studies have gone: Prior work showed that trained lay CHWs plus provider education doubled tobacco abstinence in people with serious mental illness, but using existing Medicaid behavioral health staff as CHWs within Medicaid ACOs is a newer approach.
Where this research is happening
-
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Evins, a Eden — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Evins, a Eden
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.