ASH Calls For Better Smoking Cessation Training For Mental Health Staff

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is calling for staff who work with mental health patients to be given better training around smoking cessation, given that those suffering from mental health challenges are more likely to smoke than those without similar conditions.

Vaping Post reported on the findings of a survey conducted by ASH, which found that those working in the field of mental health believe they are not well equipped to help their patients give up smoking.

The charity found that just 17 per cent of mental health nurses and 13 per cent of psychiatrists believed that they had received adequate training around the links between smoking and mental health during their undergraduate studies.

This indicates that many who work with mental health patients are “ill-equipped to implement smoking cessation strategies”, ASH noted.

As the news provider pointed out, those with mental health conditions also find it harder to quit smoking than other people, with the charity stressing the need for staff in this field to have better training to help patients access alternatives to cigarettes and get the support they need to stop smoking.

We even shared research recently which found that quitting smoking is associated with better mental health, with people who quit smoking for at least six weeks less depressed, anxious and stressed than those who continued smoking.

If you think e-cigarettes could support your efforts to quit smoking, you’ll find everything you need at our vape shop in Manchester or our online store. Vapes have been shown to be successful in helping people to give up cigarettes, so this could be a good tool to use if you have struggled with going cold turkey with cigarettes in the past.