Smoking tobacco is a major public health issue and a significant cause of increased mortality. People with a first episode of psychosis are more likely to smoke and the subgroup that goes on to have schizophrenia will have a significantly reduced life expectancy to the general population.
The City & Hackney Early and Quick Intervention in Psychosis Team is a community mental health team at East London NHS Foundation Trust, providing outpatient care for adults presenting with first episode psychosis. This project aimed to increase the number of smoking cessation referrals from EQUIP to national smoking cessation services to 15% of the total team caseload over 6 months initially. A secondary measure was to complete an assessment of the smoking status for 90% of the caseload at all times.
The aim was achieved at 23 months. A collateral benefit indicated that 25.7% of the total number of smokers had been recorded as having stopped smoking during the course of this project. This project demonstrates the effectiveness of quality improvement methodology facilitated by efficient leadership, collaborative teamwork, patient participation and persistence to address a complex problem that has significant consequences to patient health.
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