Dallas Treatment Center Launches Smoking Cessation Program
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 480,000 smoking-related deaths each year.
In addition, it is one of the toughest habits to stop, as it takes an average of five to seven tries before a person achieves success quitting. Enterhealth, a Dallas based drug and alcohol treatment center, recently established a smoking cessation program for companies to help employees quit smoking. The program is also available for the public.
Enterhealth’s program approaches the difficulties of quitting through a telehealth service platform that includes telepsychiatry and teletherapy.
The technology is a modern form of health care delivery which breaks away from traditional models by using telecommunication systems and wireless communication methods such as tablets and smartphones to connect patients with therapists or doctors.
The 12-week session starts with an initial assessment by a psychiatrist, who is able to determine any underlying psychiatric issues before starting treatment. From there, the experts at Enterhealth create a personalized treatment plan aimed at preventing or lessening the withdrawal, anxiety, depression and weight gain that often accompanies stopping nicotine. After that, each patient is given a customized medication plan and attends therapy sessions via telemedicine, so that the patient never has to come into a doctor’s office, but is still able to receive the latest, science-based care to address this life-threatening condition.
“Nicotine is highly addictive, but smoking is one of the easiest addictions to treat, and we’ve seen great success so far with this program,” said Dr. Harold Urschel, chief medical strategist at Enterhealth. “The best part is that employees and the public want to quit, but they didn’t have a resource to whom they could turn for help, and now they do.”
