DASHES (Drug and Alcohol Service Users Help to Exit Smoking) - CSO Funded

Rates of tobacco smoking are significantly higher in people with problematic drug or alcohol use than the general population. Smoking plays an important part in people becoming ill and dying young. In Scotland, there are no specialised stop smoking services (NHS SSS) for this group and uptake of existing NHS SSS is low. For most people, stopping smoking quickly is the best option so this means that standard NHS SSS focus on helping people stop over a few weeks with little support afterwards to reduce the chance that they start smoking again. This is different from effective substance misuse services, where reducing and managing use is seen as helpful. In standard NHS SSS, the pressure on staff and clients to achieve abstinence quickly is difficult, demotivating for recovering alcohol and substance users and can result in people withdrawing from services that were not designed to meet their needs. This study will develop and test a way of delivering a smoking cessation service (the intervention) that is tailored, trauma informed, and focused on harm reduction. It will support people recovering from problematic drug or alcohol use to cut down or stop smoking.  The intervention will be co-developed and evaluated with service users as expert members of the team, practitioners working in substance misuse services and researchers with experience of designing harm reduction interventions.