Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Smoke Free Hospitals
Mental Health Services in Swindon are going Smoke Free.
Why go Smoke Free?
We know that smoking tobacco product remains the single largest preventable cause of ill health and premature death in England from respiratory disease, circulatory disease and cancer.
Smoking prevalence rates are significantly higher among people hospitalised with a mental health condition, where 70% or more of service users’ smoke and around 50% are dependent smokers.
The NHS England Taskforce report has recommended that Public Health England continues to support all in-patient units to be smoke free by 2018.
What does this mean?
From October 2017 all AWP sites in Swindon will go Smoke Free. This means that staff, visitors and service users will not be able to smoke anywhere in any AWP sites, this includes inpatient areas such as at Sandalwood Court and The Victoria Centre. The biggest change will be that service users will no longer be able to smoke in the current designated garden areas of the ward or anywhere else on sites.
What support will be available?
Staff will be trained to support service users to remain Smoke Free whilst on our sites. Staff will receive smoking cessation training and also training to support service users who do not wish to give up smoking but will be required to remain abstinent during an admission to hospital. This will include the use of e-cigarettes.
What about in the community?
We have a duty to protect staff from second hand smoke. If a service user is receiving a visit from a member of our staff then we request that they make a room available that is smoke free. Both service users and their families are requested not to smoke during our visit and beforehand for an hour.
How will Smoke Free Hospitals be implemented?
AWP are working with partners in Public Health Swindon to plan implementation. We will plan further communications as we work towards October.
Newlands Anning, Managing Director and Sarah Jones, Quality Director, AWP Swindon