Our Philosophy

The choice to smoke and the choice to quit.

Forcing or pressurising people to quit smoking is wrong and there should always be a choice. But we believe that ignoring someone's smoking and not offering help is equally wrong and also serves to deny choice.

These days, if you smoke, then you're very likely to be inundated (some may say overwhelmed) by offers of quit smoking advice and support. Your GP will raise the issue. So will your dentist, pharmacist - and in many cases - your family and friends.
If you decide to quit, then the help is there.

Unfortunately, if you happen to be a mental health service user, then all that can go out of the window. In surveys, service users have reported that nobody raises the issue of smoking with them - and that they wouldn't feel able to access quit support if they needed it.

Rather, the decision is often taken for you. If you have a condition such as schizophrenia then it's often assumed that quitting smoking is simply 'not a priority' and that cigarettes are 'all you have in your life'. All in all, it's probably better for everyone that you just carry on smoking. We can worry about the consquences later.

Things are changing however. At Smoke Free Minds we have now worked with several hundreds of mental healthcare staff who have taken the decision to train up in smoking related interventions.