Fleabag
Achiever
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2013
- Messages
- 3,479
I work as a manager in a community mental health service, providing one-to-one and group support. Not only have a number of staff, including myself, started using e-cigs, but their use has significantly increased amongst service users over recent months and we now have sizeable groups of Vapers in social sessions and groups.
After a rather frustrating meeting with my staff, in which they flagged up the lack of policy on e-cigs within the organisation and questioned the safety of “passive vaping”, one of the senior management team rushed together an email quoting the smoking policy and inserting “including the use of e-cigarettes” whenever “smoking” appeared (“smoking, including the use of e-cigarettes, is not permitted in any [organisation] building or on any [organisation] property” etc).
They have not only excluded it from inside the buildings, but also ban staff from using them in car parks or in their cars while travelling on organisation business.
Immediately, I raised this with my staff rep to bring up in staff council, citing the benefits not only to staff and organisation, but even more importantly, the service users (who are traditionally a group who smoke significantly more than the general population – up to 70% of people with schizophrenia self-medicate with tobacco). Any action on the organisation’s part that supports and encourages smoking reduction and cessation is a positive one, and driving service users and staff outside to vape simply increases the use of tobacco (if I go outside, I smoke). Many service users have adopted the e-cigs to avoid standing outside, so being forced out there will result in them smoking.
I raised the fundamental issue that “smoking, including the use of e-cigarettes” is as logical as saying “smoking, including the drinking of coffee”. After my request for further debate, numerous other staff reps came forward with objections from those they represent. The staff were told in advance of the meeting that all objections would not be heard, only mine as the first one (and therefore did not consider the weight of argument from the many).
The senior manager went into the meeting with a flat refusal to modify the policy (so much for the council contributing to decision making). Their justification for the policy is that they are following (copying) NHS policy.
However, this is not generic NHS policy, and those that have not written an e-cig policy have clearly not banned them (generic policy has to be that they are permitted unless specifically stated otherwise).
I am currently trying to put together some facts to challenge their argument that this is generic NHS policy. So far I’ve found about 3 trusts with some vaping restrictions, though the general approach amongst these seems to be to permit them in car parks (as opposed to smoking which is banned on all trust premises). I have also found anecdotal evidence of other trusts where individuals have been permitted to use e-cigs. After failing to find any policy for trusts in my region, I have to assume none exist, therefore vaping is not banned in any of them.
Even Cambridgeshire police are allowed to use them in offices, providing they are not in a front-facing role.
Any details about other NHS trust attitudes or ways in which staff have managed to educate ignorant employers?
After a rather frustrating meeting with my staff, in which they flagged up the lack of policy on e-cigs within the organisation and questioned the safety of “passive vaping”, one of the senior management team rushed together an email quoting the smoking policy and inserting “including the use of e-cigarettes” whenever “smoking” appeared (“smoking, including the use of e-cigarettes, is not permitted in any [organisation] building or on any [organisation] property” etc).
They have not only excluded it from inside the buildings, but also ban staff from using them in car parks or in their cars while travelling on organisation business.
Immediately, I raised this with my staff rep to bring up in staff council, citing the benefits not only to staff and organisation, but even more importantly, the service users (who are traditionally a group who smoke significantly more than the general population – up to 70% of people with schizophrenia self-medicate with tobacco). Any action on the organisation’s part that supports and encourages smoking reduction and cessation is a positive one, and driving service users and staff outside to vape simply increases the use of tobacco (if I go outside, I smoke). Many service users have adopted the e-cigs to avoid standing outside, so being forced out there will result in them smoking.
I raised the fundamental issue that “smoking, including the use of e-cigarettes” is as logical as saying “smoking, including the drinking of coffee”. After my request for further debate, numerous other staff reps came forward with objections from those they represent. The staff were told in advance of the meeting that all objections would not be heard, only mine as the first one (and therefore did not consider the weight of argument from the many).
The senior manager went into the meeting with a flat refusal to modify the policy (so much for the council contributing to decision making). Their justification for the policy is that they are following (copying) NHS policy.
However, this is not generic NHS policy, and those that have not written an e-cig policy have clearly not banned them (generic policy has to be that they are permitted unless specifically stated otherwise).
I am currently trying to put together some facts to challenge their argument that this is generic NHS policy. So far I’ve found about 3 trusts with some vaping restrictions, though the general approach amongst these seems to be to permit them in car parks (as opposed to smoking which is banned on all trust premises). I have also found anecdotal evidence of other trusts where individuals have been permitted to use e-cigs. After failing to find any policy for trusts in my region, I have to assume none exist, therefore vaping is not banned in any of them.
Even Cambridgeshire police are allowed to use them in offices, providing they are not in a front-facing role.
Any details about other NHS trust attitudes or ways in which staff have managed to educate ignorant employers?
