Mental health patients who smoke, should have access to e-cigs

In a statement titled, ‘Why smoking and mental health matters’, the Mental Health & Smoking Partnership pointed out that since smoking retains a strong presence in mental health settings, e-cigarettes and other harm reduction tools should be made easily available in such contexts.

Co-chair of the partnership Professor Ann McNeill, said that the tendency to smoke amongst people with mental health conditions is twice as high. “This is a great inequality leading to early death and years of chronic illness for many,” she said. “E-cigarettes provide a new opportunity for people to move away from smoking and avoid the terrible burden of death and disease it causes.”

 

Despite a steady drop in smoking rates across the general population in the UK, rates amongst people struggling with mental health conditions has remained unchanged for the last 20 years. So whilst 16% of the general adult population in the UK smokes, in psychiatric settings the smoking rate remains as high as 70%, possibly leading to a higher mortality rate.

Aim:  Reducing smoking rate amongst mental health patients to 5% by 2035

The partnership aims to reduce the smoking rates among people with a mental health conditions to 5% by 2035. Additionally Alyssa Best, from Cancer Research UK, said that the Government is committed to tackling this problem, and this is where vaping products come in. “E-cigarettes offer another opportunity for smokers with mental health conditions that haven’t been able to stop using other methods. They should be offered as a legitimate method of quitting across all mental health settings,” she said.

Read Further : Cancer Research UK