At Cygnet we recognise that a service user’s physical health is of equal importance to their mental health and must be part of a package of care that seeks to reduce health inequalities and improve their wellbeing. It is widely acknowledged that people with severe mental illness are both more likely to smoke and more likely to die earlier than the general population.
Multi-disciplinary staff from several Cygnet hospitals recently got together to attend a workshop, led by staff at Cygnet Hospital Beckton. The workshop reviewed current processes and discussed goals and objectives and how they fall into lines with CQUIN targets, NICE guidelines and Cygnet’s corporate vision. The Edward de Bono approach of six thinking hats was utilised to plan thinking processes in a detailed, cohesive and collaborative way. This approach focused the discussion to explore the problem, develop solutions and plan the solutions.
A number of goals were achieved including identifying a smoking cessation champion on each ward and promoting opportunities and access for support. An action plan was created to ensure on-going developments to support hospitals achieve the goal of providing smoke free services.
Feedback from the workshop was extremely positive, comments included: ‘I’ve a clearer understanding of what will happen when we go smoke free’, ‘Helpful workshop and nice to see plans for smoke free’, ‘I feel I can help others now who want to quit’, ‘Helpful and motivational, with lots of good ideas’, ‘Very interactive with lots of useful information’, ‘The task seems doable now’.