Public health programs in public health agencies across the United States are increasingly taking action to integrate activities across single-disease program lines. BE A BRIDGE supports this movement and is working with federal, state and local organizations to integrate chronic disease and tobacco control programs.

Recent reductions in funding have increased the need for partnership and collaboration. With all this said, we are not naïve to constraints to integration that include 1) funding that is specific to a disease or an organization i.e., categorical; 2) barriers in the way agencies and organizations operate; and 3) program accountability that is not flexible enough to enable integration. Despite these barriers, public health organizations see value in program integration and there is a growing determination to coordinate and link programs. The perceived benefits of program integration are the motivating force behind these actions, but there is little documentation about how to integrate programs, what the benefits are to program integration, and what barriers exist. BE A BRIDGE is interested in your thoughts, concerns, comments and feedback regarding the topic of tobacco and chronic disease integration.