Hans is alcohol addict and is in an addiction clinic from Novadic-Kentron in Vught. He also smoking, but he will stop from now on. At the end of this year, no client may smoke in and around the clinic. The Dutch GGZ has signed the National Prevention Agreement and that means that all GGZ institutions must be smoke-free in 2025.
The Dutch mental health care wants every affiliated institution to become smoke -free. Employees, clients, suppliers and visitors are then no longer allowed to smoke in the buildings, but also not on the outside areas of the institutions. This decision was taken because health care has to make people better and smoking does not fit that.
In the clinic in Vught, there is currently only a place outside on the site where smoking is allowed. Hans, who has been in the clinic for six weeks, is lit his last cigarette here. “If you keep smoking, you also stay attached to the agent you use. In my case that is alcohol. It is out of necessity that I want to stop.”
Hans stops smoking for his own health, but certainly not because of the new smoke -free policy that the clinic introduces from the end of the year. “You will find someone who is very difficult to deal with authorities. So if they obliged it, I would not cooperate, I think.”
“It is an addiction that can be compared with an addiction of heroin.”
And although he does not stop because of the upcoming smoking ban, he understands. “From a medical point of view I understand very well. Much too many people die from the effects of smoking,” he says. “But it is an addiction that can be compared with an addiction of heroin. That means that it is really very difficult to stop. That is really a big task.”
In the clinic, Hans and other clients are guided to stop smoking step by step. This guidance is very important to make the institution completely smoke -free at the end of the year. Earlier, the clinic also tried to set a smoking ban, but that didn’t work at the time. “People had the feeling that their autonomy was being taken away,” says addiction doctor Tim van Grinsven to the NOS.
“There was so much friction about the rules that we were no longer able to deal with. Everything revolved around not being allowed to smoke anymore. It turned out to be too much a step for our target group,” says Van Grinsven. The clinic now follows the example of the Dutch Railways. “They did well. First smoking in certain places and then they always went one step further.”
“He tastes good, my last cigarette.”
Hans is confident that he will succeed with the guidance to stop. “Because I know that the support they offer will help me. I am convinced,” he says, taking a hoist. “He tastes good, my last cigarette.” When Hans expresses his butt, he says goodbye to just as symbolically. “Well boy, you go there. Considering speed.”