Legal News

Camden and Islington Foundation Trust has become one of the first health trusts in the UK to stop offering supervised smoking for inpatients with severe mental health conditions.

Local publisher the Islington Tribune reports that in the future mental health patients being treated in the trust’s secure mental health units will be forced to quit smoking.

The trust says that smoking-related illnesses are the main cause of death among its mental health patients and that the habit interferes with psychiatric treatment.

Mental health patients sectioned under the Mental Health Act are detained in secure units until doctors feel they are well enough to return to the community. In Camden and Islington, they will have no option but to comply with the trust’s ban on smoking and give up the habit.

Patients will, however, be offered nicotine gum and nicotine patches – as well as e-cigarettes, which have not yet been regulated for use in the UK. The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London recently banned the use of e-cigarettes on their premises.

E-cigarettes release a vapour of nicotine which may be passively smoked in enclosed areas. However, they do not release harmful by-products found in tobacco such as tar – and also release harmful emissions found in cigarettes, such as carbon monoxide, in much smaller doses. Smokers gradually reduce the strength of nicotine liquid used in e-cigarettes to reduce their dependency on tobacco.

However, nicotine in cigarettes is a powerful drug which has an effect on the brain, producing an addictive “high” for regular smokers.

Mental health patients undergoing inpatient care at secure units are usually prescribed strong antipsychotic medication, which also has an effect on the brain.

It is reported there are high levels of dependency on tobacco among some of the most vulnerable mental health patients at the trust’s Dartmouth Park secure unit in north London.

Camden and Islington Foundation Trust’s lead in smoking cessation, Simon Bristow, told the Islington Tribune:

“In recognition of the situation and in the interest of promoting choice we are going to permit people electronic cigarettes. We will supply nicotine replacement products without prescription.

“We have already begun decreasing smoking breaks and we will be completely smoke-free by March 11.

“But this is not just about a smoking ban – the whole system has changed.

“We are increasing activities like football and dance – and fresh air breaks to fill the void.”

Mental health patients held in low-, medium- or high-security units may have been detained under the Mental Health Act for their own safety – or because they have committed a criminal offence or are considered a risk to the public.

The Centre for Mental Health estimates that secure mental health care costs the NHS 18.9% of the total adult mental health budget, based on figures for 2009-2010.

Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of mental health solicitors and can advise mental health patients on their rights under the Mental Health Act, including access to mental health services and detention under the Mental Health Act.

Duncan Lewis mental health solicitors are the UK’s largest provider of Legal Aid mental health advice – and regularly visit mental health hospitals and police stations nationwide at short notice to advise on mental health law.

For expert legal advice on the Mental Health Act and mental health law, call the Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors Helpline on 0203 114 1124.