Eliminating Tobacco Use in Mental Health Facilities: Patients' Rights, Public Health, and Policy Issues

Williams opines that the US public mental health system must address the issue of tobacco use in psychiatric hospitals. At state-funded psychiatric hospitals, medical directors and administrators are attempting to enact policies that restrict tobacco use in these facilities, not only in building but on all adjacent outdoor areas or grounds. Thus, this program will create healthy environment for everyone who receives care, visits a patient, or works in these facilities, yet it also help patients to quit smoking.