Staff attitudes to completely smoke-free policies and smoking cessation practices in a mental health setting

Mental health trusts in England were expected to become completely smoke-free and embed smoking cessation practices by 2018. Such policies are fraught with concerns and have received mixed support from mental health staff. Understanding staff attitudes to these practices prior to enforcement of the policy could help design an effective implementation strategy.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with clinical and non-clinical staff in a Mental Health Trust to understand smoking cessation practices and attitudes to the implementation of a completely smoke-free policy.

There were 631 responses. Most participants disagreed with the policy on wards (59.6%) and throughout all mental health settings (57.4%). Clinicians expressed significantly lower organizational policy support (P = 0.001) than non-clinicians (P = 0.001). Psychiatrists were more supportive of the organizational items than nurses and allied health professionals. Clinicians' attitudes towards smoking cessation practices were less positive for those who were current smokers (P < 0.001), but more positive for clinicians who had received or were interested in attending smoking cessation training (P < 0.001).

Partial and completely smoke-free policies remain unsupported by staff in mental health settings. Smoking cessation training appears to reinforce rather than alter attitudes towards smoking cessation.