" The purported beneficial psychiatric effects of smoking is actually something that has long been known or suspected. It was once routine policy, I've been told, to supply hospitalized psychiatric patients with free cigarettes. Thanks to the Nico-Nazis, we have now banned any smoking whatsoever in psychiatric hospitals to the detriment of patients. Previously, in-patients had an isolated smoking room within the unit so they could smoke on their own timetable. Now, patients are given short furloughs from their wards to go outside to smoke. Those who are confined to locked units until they stabilize must be escorted outside by busy staff for whom that task is a last priority."
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"We hear from patients that a lot of behavioural issues start because they've been denied a smoke. Some have smoked for decades and suddenly, because they need mental health treatment, that's the end of it. They engage in acting-out behaviour and may end up in seclusion or restraints, which creates health and safety risks for patients and staff."
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"A somewhat different solution is to use electronic or e-cigarettes. These devices do not contain the chemicals and carcinogens found in tobacco cigarettes, do not smell or produce second hand smoke. They heat up liquid containing nicotine and produce water vapour rather than smoke. According to Melodie Tilson, policy director with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association quoted in the National Post, there's "virtually no chance an e-cigarette could be as harmful as a tobacco cigarette to the individual using the product."
But, as the National Post pointed out, she is opposed to them because "We need to look at the bigger picture and their impact on overall smoking rates. If the widespread promotion of these products, and availability, causes young people to use them and then transition to actual cigarettes, that's an increase in harm."!
At this point I KNEW who really needs psychiatric treatment.
yes my first ever job was as a cadet nurse in a psychiatric hospital where i was issued daily with a packet of cigs to give out to patients that asked for them when they became agitated.
ReplyDeleteIt also saddens me to know that patients in hospices terminally ill are denied having their smokes in comfort, but must go outside in all weathers - it makes me sick!