Smoking cessation and mental health – a partnership 
Michelle Battlemuch, Stop Smoking Service Team Leader, Nottingham City PCT, UK and Jenny Brooks, Specialist Stop Smoking Advisor, Nottingham City PCT, UK

Abstract
There is clear evidence that smoking prevalence is higher among people with mental health problems and that smoking contributes significantly to health inequalities in this section of the population (HDA 2004). This abstract briefly describes the partnership between New Leaf (Nottingham City Stop Smoking Service) and Notts Healthcare (NHS mental healthcare Trust) as the Trust implemented smoke-free legislation.

New Leaf were closely involved in the Trust’s smoke-free steering group and agreed to provide Brief Intervention (BI) training and support for both staff and clients wishing to stop smoking within
the Trust locations within Nottingham City.

As the Trust covers an extremely large geographical area, a specialist mental health trainer was also contracted (also providing level 2 training) and an e-learning package was also available to ensure a target of 50% of frontline staff had received BI training by the end of March 2008 New Leaf has provided a rolling programme of BI sessions which have been attended by approx 60 staff so far and have been very positively evaluated.

The service has also provided regular in-patient sessions (in the future more Trust staff will be trained to provide this) Support for staff has been provided through drop-in sessions with NRT available through a PGD. 

Although New Leaf had always provided an ‘on-request’ in-patient service to the Trust, the implementation of a smoke-free policy provided a driving force for a more structured approach to the provision of support for clients and Trust staff and also the development of a comprehensive training programme for staff.