Perceived social norms of smoking culture in substance abuse treatment facilities

Oftentimes people's behavior is greatly impacted by the prevailing social norms of their surrounding culture and environment. This is especially true with smoking behaviors in drug treatment centers. The purpose of this study is to investigate smoking culture in drug treatment centers. Data were collected from in-depth telephone interviews administered to 226 program administrators. The substance abuse treatment facilities were randomly selected using the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association database. Less than half of the administrators strongly disagree that smoking (42%) is an accepted part of the staff culture at their treatment program, that smoking and tobacco use are not important issues (38.5%), and that there is not enough time to add smoking cessation activities to their protocol (22.6%). Only a quarter of the administrators (24.8%) strongly disagree that allowing patients to continue their tobacco habits facilitates successful treatment of their substance abuse issues, and only 14.6% strongly disagree that their staff does not have the skills to provide smoking cessation treatments to their patients. Further, only 19.0% strongly disagree that their staff does not have interest in providing patients with smoking cessation treatments. About 23% strongly agree that it is hard to be reimbursed for staff time spent on patients' smoking cessation. It is vital to stay informed of the smoking cultures in drug treatment centers across the country, as it can help us to better understand the relationship between smoking cessation and primary substance abuse issues of the patients.