Dr. Zim Okoli Receives Grant from Department of Medicaid Services for Behavioral Health Tobacco Dependence Treatment
Zim Okoli, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, CTTS, associate professor, recently received a state contract from the Department of Medicaid Services entitled “University Partnership – Behavioral Health Tobacco Dependence Treatment.” Despite steady declines in the smoking use prevalence of the general US population in the past five decades, little change has been observed in some vulnerable sub groups, specifically, individuals in behavioral health settings (i.e. those with mental illness and substance use disorders).
This two year, $307,304 award will focus on delivering targeted training on addressing tobacco and other substance use treatment to staff providing care to Medicaid patients in behavioral health settings and build capacity for delivering evidence-based tobacco treatment to those behavioral health consumers in Kentucky.
Dr. Okoli received his undergraduate degrees in nursing and philosophy from the University of Kentucky. He subsequently earned a Master of Science in Public Health, Master of Science in Nursing, and in 2005, his Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing, all from UK. In 2008 he completed a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) postdoctoral traineeship in tobacco research at the University of British Columbia. In 2010 he further completed a CIHR postdoctoral fellowship in gender, mental health and addictions through the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Okoli is an associate professor in the UK College of Nursing and he directs the Tobacco Treatment Services and Evidence-Based Practice at Eastern State Hospital, a state-psychiatric facility in Lexington, KY. He also directs the Tobacco Treatment and Prevention Division of the BREATHE program. Building upon his earlier work on the effects of tobacco smoke exposure on smoking behaviors, he currently focuses on the effects of tobacco exposure on mental health outcomes and psychiatric disorders. He is also actively involved in developing and evaluating tobacco treatment approaches for individuals living with behavioral health challenges; and the training of health care professionals on delivering tobacco treatment within behavioral health settings.
