Smoking and mental health - NCSCT

Smoking and mental health
needs to be struck between personal rights and welfare, the objectives of the
institutions, and the rights and interests of other staff and residents/inmates.
However, policy and service provision should promote and protect health. In
relation to smoking, which is the biggest preventable threat to physical health in
this population, this means greater investment in smoking cessation treatment,
and in establishing a smoke-free culture.
10.9 Research priorities
The findings of this report identify some clear areas of need for further research
on smoking in mental health populations. Uncertainties are evident in all of the
above summary statements, but some of the biggest challenges lie in
understanding the mechanisms of the association between smoking and mental
disorders, why people with mental disorders are more likely to be smokers and
how to prevent uptake in this group, how smoking cessation support can be
improved to increase cessation, how delivery of cessation interventions can be
made systematic, how to maximise and maintain adherence to smoke-free
policies, how to integrate harm reduction and temporary abstinence strategies
into mental healthcare delivery, and how to address the needs of special groups
of people with a high prevalence of smoking, such as homeless people. Where
initiatives are made in these areas, it is important to include formal evaluation
and reporting, as, for example, in the Rampton Hospital, for the benefit of
others.
194 © Royal College of Physicians 2013