Reports and submissions
Reports
Public mental health and smoking: A framework for action (2022)
This joint report from the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership and the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s Public Mental Health Implementation Centre outlines the contribution smoking is making to poorer quality of life of people with a mental health condition and the extent to which it is driving poor mental health. It seeks to set out a suggested approach for ICS and local government in addressing the cycle of dependence between smoking and poor mental health.
The report sets out:
- The link between smoking and poor mental health and describes a cycle of dependence through which smoking increases the risk of poor mental health which, in turn, increases tobacco dependency and health inequalities
- Evidence-based strategies to reduce smoking at population level and for those with mental health conditions
- A framework for scaling-up action, in line with the Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health, to secure the Government’s ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030
Mental Health and Smoking Partnership recommendations for the Tobacco Control Plan for England 2021
This report from the Mental Health & Smoking Partnership sets out the action needed to achieve the Government’s smokefree 2030 ambition for people with mental health conditions. This includes:
- Setting intermediate targets to reduce smoking prevalence among people with mental health conditions
- Expanding access to stop smoking medications and other aids to quitting
Improving support in community and inpatient mental health settings
Supporting smokers who access IAPT services to quit smoking - Implementing a targeted approach to addressing smoking among vulnerable people with co-occurring high rates of smoking and poor mental health, such as smokers who misuse drugs or alcohol
- Reaching all smokers with messages that quitting can improve their mental health
Smokefree Skills: Training needs of mental health nurses and psychiatrists (2020)
This report from ASH and the Mental Health & Smoking Partnership examines the current training of mental health nurses and psychiatrists to help their patients quit smoking. Research was undertaken through a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups.
Progress towards smokefree mental health services: Findings from a survey of mental health trusts in England, Action on Smoking and Health (2019)
This report presents the findings of a survey of NHS mental health trusts in England conducted by ASH for Public Health England in Spring 2019. It examines whether the Government’s objective for all mental health trusts to be smokefree by 2018 has been achieved. It describes both the extent to which smokefree policies and support to quit smoking has been adopted and the reality of local practice in delivering these policies.
Smokefree Skills: Community Mental Health (2019)
ASH analysis, based on a survey of mental health professionals (nurses and psychiatrists) working in the community, found that there is low awareness of very brief advice (VBA) among mental health nurses and psychiatrists; that prescribing medications for smoking cessation is not common practice amongst community mental health professional; and that a substantial proportion of nurses and psychiatrists reported they had not had any training in smoking cessation.
A Change In The Air (2019)
In 2019, ASH, along with the Mental Health & Smoking Partnership and CRUK published the report A Change In The Air which examines the smokefree policies and practices of mental health trusts in England. It also measures and describes the progress being made by trusts in implementing the NICE guidance PH48.
The Stolen Years (2016)
In 2016 ASH published The Stolen Years: Smoking and Mental Health Action report which highlights the disproportionately high rates of smoking among people with a mental health condition.
Whilst smoking rates have fallen significantly over the last 20 years, they have remained stubbornly high among those with poor mental health and around 1 in 3 cigarettes are currently smoked by someone with a mental health condition.
The report is endorsed by 27 mental health and public health organisations, many of whom have become key members of what became the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership, including The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and Rethink Mental Illness.
Submissions
Submission to Advancing our Health: Prevention in the 2020s
In October 2019 the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership responded to the Department of Health and Social Care’s consultation ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s.’
You can read the submission here and learn more about the consultation here.