Mersey Care has been a committed smoke free trust since October 2017, bringing us in line with National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
Mersey Care has worked towards becoming a smoke free trust in support of guidelines set down by NICE in 2013, who recommended that all NHS funded secondary care sites should become completely smoke free.
This has been supported by Public Health England (PHE), who published guidance for commissioners recommending that all medium and secure mental health units and other NHS sites progress towards providing care in completely smoke free buildings and grounds.
As a trust we have a duty to protect the health and wellbeing of all in our care and employment and banning smoking on our premises was one of the best methods to achieve that. Service users, carers and visitors are no longer able to smoke anywhere on Trust premises.
We were guided in our implementation plan by a PHE document called ‘Smokefree mental health services in England.’
There is some useful information on the effect on service users of giving up smoking on Page 48, which you can access here. They have also published a guide for hospitals, which you can access here.
Find out what this means and how we will help you:
Smoke free update
Mersey Care are striving to become totally smoke free across all its sites and services. In April 2022 the prevalence of tobacco smoking within the general population in England was 13.percent, whereas the mental health population stands at 70 percent.
As part of our goal to become smoke free, a comprehensive nicotine management assessment is being conducted. This helps staff discuss attempts to quit with service users using Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or manage their nicotine dependence in a safer way (Vapes).
Staff are being helped with those challenging conversations with a new training package that’s been developed to help them support service users and how to use a carbon monoxide monitor to motivate progress.
Should service users choose to quit they will be offered two NRT products and referred to the local stop smoking service if they are an inpatient and are discharged before the 12 weeks course is completed.
If they choose to manage their nicotine in a safer way, they will be advised to use products from independent retailers who are not affiliated to the tobacco industry. The retailers are Totally Wicked, Liberty flights and Dinner Lady.
For further information or advice please contact Peter Terry via e-mail peter