Do crack smoking practices change with the introduction of safer crack kits?

Objectives: Crack smoking has increased in Vancouver despite the harms associated with its use. Many people who smoke crack share their equipment, thereby increasing their risk for infectious disease. This project explored the effects of outreach distribution of "safer crack kits" on smoking practices.

Facilitating knowledge translation in the "real world" of community psychiatry.

Background: Tobacco use disproportionately affects the well-being of individuals with mental illness. In community psychiatric settings, there are culturally embedded attitudes and behaviors regarding smoking that enable practitioners to remain ambivalent about their clients' tobacco use.

Objectives: Given these cultural norms, the authors aimed to introduce evidence-informed smoking cessation interventions to a variety of interdisciplinary mental health care providers by using an innovative approach to knowledge translation.

Gender-specific profiles of tobacco use among non-institutionalized people with serious mental illness.

Background: In many countries, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death. In North America, reductions in population smoking levels are stabilising and, in recent years, those involved in tobacco control programming have turned their attention to particular segments of society that are at greatest risk for tobacco use. One such group is people with mental illness.

In the shadow of a new smoke free policy: A discourse analysis of health care providers' engagement in tobacco control in community mental health.

Background: The prevalence of tobacco use among individuals with mental illness remains a serious public health concern. Tobacco control has received little attention in community mental health despite the fact that many individuals with mental illness are heavy smokers and experience undue tobacco-related health consequences.

Methods: This qualitative study used methods of discourse analysis to examine the perceptions of health care providers, both professionals and paraprofessionals, in relation to their roles in tobacco control in the community mental health system.

Community mental healthcare providers' attitudes and practices related to smoking cessation interventions for people living with severe mental illness.

Objective: This study aimed to describe mental healthcare providers' attitudes about tobacco use, their personal smoking status, their confidence in offering smoking cessation support to clients living with severe mental illness, and the extent to which they incorporated smoking cessation interventions into their practice. The study also aimed to determine whether the providers' attitudes, smoking status, and confidence were associated with offering smoking cessation support to clients.

Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were distributed within community-based mental health agencies to those who provide care and support to adults living with severe mental illness.

Correlates of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure among persons with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) accessing community mental health services.

To examine the correlates of secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure in a sample of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) accessing community mental health services. Cross-sectional data were collected from a voluntary sample of 788 individuals with SPMI. Nonsmokers were more likely to be exposed on the street or at a bus stop, in a park or public place; whereas smokers were more likely to report SHS exposure where they lived and at their friend's homes.

Documenting practices and perceptions of 'safer' crack use: a Canadian pilot study.

Background: People who smoke crack cocaine have a distinct social profile when compared to other drug user groups (e.g., injection drug users), may be at increased risk for particular health problems and experience unique social harms as a consequence of their crack use.

Drug and alcohol use among patients with schizophrenia and related psychoses: levels and consequences.

Patients with schizophrenia and related psychoses frequently use, abuse and become dependent on psychoactive substances. Local surveys indicate differences in both types and patterns of substances used. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to document abuse in 207 successive outpatients presenting to a psychiatric continuing care facility in a large Canadian city.