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WELLINGTON - Many mental health staff encourage patients in their care to smoke, often in breach of the law, says the anti-smoking group Ash.
People with mental illnesses have 30 per cent more respiratory disorders and heart disease than the general population, the group says in a report issued yesterday.
Yet mental health services commonly endorse tobacco use, and psychiatric units place "little or no emphasis" on smoking hazards.
Until the 1970s, the report says, tobacco was used by staff as a reward for compliance, and for trading among hospital residents.
Since then, the mentally ill have been relocated into the community, but the "culture" of mental health services remains largely in favour of tobacco use.
Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) says it is common for staff to smoke with patients and for services to fail to comply with the Smokefree Environments Act.
More than 30 per cent of psychiatric nurses and "probably higher" proportions of other mental health staff smoke - compared with 5 per cent of doctors, 18 per cent of nurses and 25 per cent of adults generally.
The incidence of smoking among the mentally ill could be as high as 80 per cent, Ash says.
It is also closely related to alcohol abuse, "a major unnatural cause of death among people with schizophrenia."
Many mentally ill people know how unhealthy smoking is, it says, but are afraid to stop because they think their illness will recur.
The report damns smoking as an "expensive, physically damaging and potentially stigmatising" way of meeting the social needs of the mentally ill.
It calls for support and encouragement, and says the tobacco tax mentally ill people pay should in part go towards research and programmes for their benefit.
The report also suggests the development of stop-smoking programmes, coordinated between psychiatrists, doctors and nurses.
It notes a significant shift in the past year towards compliance, as well as moves to provide smoke-free services.
And it warns that damages claims could be filed against employers if "appropriate measures" are not taken to protect the health of staff and patients. - NZPA
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