The Council for Tobacco Treatment Training Programs is recognizing programs who excel in meeting the highest training standards in preparing and developing professional Tobacco Treatment Specialists. One program will be chosen for the award, and will be highlighted with a citation, as well as recognition on the Council's website.

Program Name: AACHARYA Tobacco Treatment Training Program

Location of the program: India

Contact email: info@toxintaxation.com

Do you offer virtual and/or in person training? 
Both

How long has the program been operating?
Since 2021

Who is eligible to participate in your program?
Health Care workers, Nurses, Doctors, Paramedical Staff, Counsellors

Number of specialists who have completed the program?
850

What have specialists who have completed your program stated in evaluations?
There was net positive feedback about the training program across all categories: Timing of the session, quality of the training program's content, trainer's skills and overall perception of the training program. Participants found the training program to be "Very effective", "informative", "and knowledgeable"

The results depicted below demonstrate feedback collected from all the participants across all the states.

Timing of the session: Was the timing of the session appropriate?
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Trainer's skills: Your Trainer was knowledgeable and had good delivery skills
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Trainer's skills: facilitator's skills in conveying the subject matter were good
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Training activities: Which activity did you enjoy the most?
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The overall perception of the training: Overall I found the training workshop useful for my work
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The overall perception of the training: As a result of my participation in the training workshop, I feel more confident to provide brief tobacco interventions to tobacco users
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There was net positive feedback about the training program across all categories: Timing of the session, quality of the content of the training program, trainer's skills and overall perception of the training program.

How do you tailor your program to keep learners engaged with the content and materials?
To ensure engagement, after each day, there is feedback collected from the participants which is evaluated and incorporated. We collect pre-registration data to understand the need of the audience and tailor our roleplays based on their working scenario.
Additionally, we facilitate the interactions and activities in the local language of the participants to make the role-play realistic and practical which could be applied in a clinical setting.
Also, we have created informal groups which helps them to raise questions and share their field experience, giving us real-time feedback to further keep the participants engaged.

Describe your program outcomes in one word.
Result-orientated 

What do TTS participants report gaining from the program?
Increase in knowledge and understanding of concepts discussed during the training program.

Below, we have displayed some of the key comments from the participants as per the questions asked.

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What makes your program stand apart? What is unique about it?
We are the only certified program across Asia to offer TTS training, both online, in-person and hybrid training.
The roleplays make it very practical and easy to apply in clinical practice and we also provide an online resource which participants can use at any point to clarify any doubts.
The informal group keeps the participants engaged with new learnings and motivates others through their sharing of clinical experiences.

Name one challenge your program encountered and overcame.
As the pandemic approached, we had to make sure the online media was extensively utilized to not miss the opportunity for training. It was challenging but integration with a tech team helped us overcome this situation and our trainees had no difficulty in learning. In fact it was possible for the remote locations to have access to this training.
With people coming from lower middle-income background the fees was quiet high and was a major barrier which we reduced by partnering with multiple institutes to support participants through scholarships.

What else should we know?
We intend to build a museum for awareness to prevent youth to develop this unhealthy habit and have a cessation support cell working both in-person and to provide virtual counselling from the trained pool of our participants to create a tobacco-free ecosystem.

 

Thank you for your continued excellence!

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