No butts – UHG firm on psychiatric unit smoking ban

Galway City Tribune – University Hospital Galway has defended its rigorous enforcement of a no-smoking policy at its new psychiatric unit, including body searches of patients for tobacco and punishing those caught smoking.

Psychiatric patients have complained that the no smoking policy at the new €20 million Adult Mental Health Unit, and its strict enforcement, is ‘draconian’. The HSE, however, said smoking is bad, and the no smoking ban is aimed at improving psychiatric patients’ physical health.

A fortnight ago, the Galway City Tribune revealed how patients were offered chocolate bribes to inform on fellow service users for smoking cigarettes outside the facility. Clients are also subject to body and locker searches for tobacco and lighters and matches.

Patients trying to ‘sneak a smoke’ said they were being watched and filmed on CCTV, and those caught smoking outside the unit are ‘punished’. The punishment involves being ordered to collect or sweep up cigarette butts outside the unit and in the garden.

Patients and mental health campaigners described the no-smoking policy and its implementation as ‘humiliating’ and ‘overzealous’.

But the HSE, in a statement issued this week, defended its no-smoking policy, and said it is “committed to reducing the use of tobacco and its harmful health effects”, as part of its Tobacco Free Campus Policy.

This policy was in place at psychiatric units in Galway, Roscommon and Ballinasloe since 2016, it said. When the new psychiatric unit opened at UHG last Summer, the HSE said it “decided to use the opportunity to implement the Tobacco Free Campus Policy more vigorously and adapt a robust approach to ensuring the site was tobacco free”.

Since the move to the new unit, the HSE said: “There is an excitement and positivity with the new surroundings, brightness, fresh smell and new resources and this is complemented by patients remaining smoke free.”

It said the policy was a “big culture change”. “While there has been some resistance to the change, we are very impressed at how well this change has been managed,” a statement said.
This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article and the HSE’s statement in full, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.