WISCONSIN UNITED
for MENTAL HEALTH

Dr. Eric Heiligenstein of the University of Wisconsin helps smokers with mental-health and addictive disorders. He has found that eighty percent of alcoholics light up, nearly 90 percent of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are addicted, and half of those with depression smoke. Meanwhile, only 19 percent of the general state population smokes. Dr. Heiligenstein has developed an innovative program--the Wisconsin Nicotine Treatment Integration Project (WINTIP). The group, for which Heiligenstein is medical director, has been working with healthcare providers across the state to help treat Wisconsin smokers with mental-health and substance-abuse issues. According to Heiligenstein, “More than 3,500 Wisconsinites with mental-health and addictive disorders die from tobacco each year. They’re dying at two to four times the rate of other smokers, and losing a decade or two of life.”

WINTIP has identified some resources for clinicians, including the Help to Quit Toolkit and The Exchange.

Wisconsin has comprehensive mental-health and substance-abuse programs in every county. WINTIP plans to train these treatment providers to help patients quit smoking. The initiative is funded by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and coordinated by the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.