Fewer assaults as trust goes smoke free

A mental health trust that found one quarter of patients first started smoking when they were admitted to hospital, has saved more than £1.5 million of nursing time and seen the number of assaults drop since it went smoke free.

The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) analysed 31,719 patient records and found mental disorders were associated with ‘substantially’ lower life expectancy – up to 14.6 years for men and 17.5 years for women.

The trust’s health promotion and wellbeing nurse consultant Mary Yates says everybody knows the single most important cause of cancer, lung and heart disease and premature mortality is smoking.

And whereas smoking rates among the general population have fallen, the same cannot be said for people with enduring mental illness.