The Royal College of Psychiatrists welcomes the Tobacco Control plan for England

Press release
18 July 2017
Dr Peter Byrne, public mental health lead at the Royal College of Psychiatrists said: "We fully welcome the Tobacco Control plan for England - especially the sections about people with severe mental illness (SMI). People with SMI die 17 years earlier than similar citizens who do not have mental health problems. We call these the "stolen years", also the name of a report from a successful collaboration between the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and 25 other partners.

“Premature mortality is preventable. Most of the stolen years we can prevent are due to smoking, with people's final years wrecked by stroke, heart and lung diseases as well as cancer. “We have made progress with smoke-free psychiatric inpatient wards but we struggle to get the right support for people with SMI to quit smoking in the community.

"We call for central government to insist that local authorities stop cutting back on funding for local NHS Stop Smoking Services (SSS). It is not a saving to have 40% smoking rates among people with SMI: the human cost in life and death, and the cost to health services greatly exceed the money saved by cutting SSS."

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