Monday, October 06, 2014
St Joseph's Health Care London
Parkwood Hospital, St Joseph’s Family Medical and Dental Centre - Now Smoke-Free
At St. Joseph’s, we are committed to providing a safe and healthy experience for all those who come through our doors. We believe creating a smoke-free environment is part of that commitment. As an organization, we have been planning this shift for some time now and took our first step with the new Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care, which opened as a smoke-free site in June 2013. The next site that went smoke-free was St. Joseph’s Hospital on Dec. 2, 2013, followed by Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care on Aug. 1, 2014 and Regional Mental Health Care London (RMHCL) on Aug. 18, 2014. Now, as of Oct. 6, 2014, Parkwood Hospital and St. Joseph’s Family Medical and Dental Centre, are also smoke-free sites.
The organization has developed a policy that applies to each site as it becomes smoke-free. For Parkwood Hospital and St. Joseph’s Family Medical and Dental Centre, this means there are no longer designated smoking areas (DSAs) onsite and smoking is no longer be permitted on hospital property, which includes all parking lots.
It is important for us to afford each person, both staff and patients, the choice, treatment and support to stop smoking, and that our facilities provide a non-triggering environment for people struggling with various stages of tobacco addiction.
The only exception to the smoke-free policy is for in-patient veterans at Parkwood Hospital who smoke. When the Smoke-Free Ontario Act came into effect in May 2006, veterans were granted an exemption and were permitted to smoke indoors in a controlled smoking area (CSA). We will still honour that exemption by allowing these veterans to continue smoking in the CSA only. In the months to come, we will be working with our veterans, Veterans Affairs Canada and legions to discuss opportunities to move toward a smoke-free environment for veterans. As with all patients and residents, we are actively supporting veterans in their smoking management or smoking cessation goals.
For more information on St. Joseph’s smoke-free initiative, please visit www.sjhc.london.on.ca/smoke-free-eng.
Thank you for doing your part to create a healthy community at St. Joseph’s.
Media Contact:
Anna-Marie Duffy
St. Joseph’s Health Care
Smoke-Free Project Lead
Anna-marie.duffy@sjhc.london.on.ca
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