Mortality and morbidity due to smoking in people with mental illnesses are higher than in the general population. However, smoking continues to be allowed in psychiatric premises of many countries despite being prohibited in workplaces including health care services.

To describe tobacco control strategies undertaken in psychiatric inpatient services and day centers in Catalonia.

To study tobacco control strategies in psychiatric services in order to identify unmet needs.

A cross-sectional study including all psychiatric services offering public service in Catalonia (n = 192). The managers answered an on-line questionnaire with 24 items grouped in four dimensions: staff's training & commitment, clinical intervention, management of smoking areas, and communication of smoke-free policies.

186 of the managers (96.9%) responded to the questionnaire. Results showed low levels of implementation of tobacco control strategies, especially in the training and intervention dimensions. 41.0% of the services usually intervened in their patients’ tobacco use but an overall 65.9% didn’t have pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation available. 47.3% of the managers stated that their staff had not enough knowledge on smoking cessation interventions. 38.9% of the services had smoking indoor areas. Day Centers showed the lowest implementation of tobacco control measures while services belonging to the Network of Smoke-free Hospitals showed the highest implementation.

Current Spanish partial law has failed to promote a desirable tobacco control in psychiatric services. There is a need to extend tobacco control policies, specifically in terms of smoking intervention and training, together with a higher availability of resources.