Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the largest mental-health facility in the country, has backtracked on a plan to ban smoking from its grounds.That's right. It matters not a jot to Canadian care administrators if their self-righteous ban is in the best interests of their smoker patients. Even when concerns are expressed by their own staff as to the wellbeing of those they are employed to protect.
“It’s not a change that was made for clinical reasons,” said Susan Pigott, vice-president of communications and community engagement at CAMH.
While smoking has come under increasing restrictions elsewhere in recent years, the mental-health community has been reluctant to act because of the pervasive view that patients already struggling with mental illness shouldn’t be forced to endure the stress of giving up a habit that many say helps to calm them.
That means that when mental-health centres such as CAMH move to ban smoking, they are likely to be met with resistance from patients – and perhaps even staff concerned about the effect on the psychological state of those in their care.
But those concerns aren’t what prompted CAMH to retreat from its proposal to ban smoking entirely.
Rather, Ms. Pigott said the policy was changed after businesses and residents near the centre’s three main Toronto sites spoke out about having patients smoke in front of their stores or on their lawns.
But once real people - you know, those who don't enjoy tobacco - protest at having to look at a smoker or two, heaven and earth must be moved to accommodate them.
In other news, shares in 'Yellow Badge Manufacturing Inc.' made great gains this week.
