[Smoke-free in Psychiatry - A Qualitative Analysis of Staff Perspectives]

People with mental illness are more likely to be nicotine-dependent and they have a shorter life expectancy as a result of smoking. Although guidelines recommend smoking cessation support, this is rarely provided by psychiatric staff who often view the implementation of smoke-free policies critically.

We undertook inductive thematic analysis of the free-text fields of a staff survey on smoking.

Feedback on the topic was often emotional and related to the areas patient care, staff and the protection of non-smokers. Participants were often concerned that smoking cessation could worsen the patient's psychiatric condition or lead to aggressive behavior.

There is no scientific evidence for these concerns. It is important to counteract false assumptions by providing the appropriate training on smoking cessation.