[Smoke-free in Psychiatry - A Qualitative Analysis of Staff Perspectives].

Background: People with mental illness are more likely to be nicotine-dependent and they have a shorter life expectancy as a result of smoking. Although guidelines recommend smoking cessation support, this is rarely provided by psychiatric staff who often view the implementation of smoke-free policies critically.

Method: We undertook inductive thematic analysis of the free-text fields of a staff survey on smoking.

Results: Feedback on the topic was often emotional and related to the areas patient care, staff and the protection of non-smokers. Participants were often concerned that smoking cessation could worsen the patient's psychiatric condition or lead to aggressive behavior.

Conclusions: There is no scientific evidence for these concerns. It is important to counteract false assumptions by providing the appropriate training on smoking cessation.