Pharmacists are often overlooked as a resource in the fight to encourage smokers to quit, as a key member of the patient’s support team during tobacco addiction treatment, and as an ally in the tobacco control fight. The Pharmacy Council on Tobacco Dependence (PCTD) and Hampton University School of Pharmacy have joined together to finds ways to engage pharmacist as a member of the tobacco addiction treatment team and to promote pharmacies as a place where smokers can find assistance in quitting.
The research is clear and unequivocal on the fact that quit rates rise significantly when smokers participate in counseled cessation programs led by pharmacists. But the research is less clear on how to encourage large numbers of smokers, especially minorities, to contemplate cessation and to move them to enter counseled cessation.
The purpose of this project is to investigate how to maximize the potential of pharmacists practicing in minority communities to promote and provide cessation services including: encouraging the patient to enter tobacco-addiction treatment, counseling about the role and proper use of pharmacological agents, and providing pharmaceutical care to these communities through patient support activities that drive patients into tobacco-addiction treatment and increase successful quit rates.
Learning Objectives: 1. To what extent are urban pharmacists currently involved in providing and marketing cessation services? 2. What role do financial incentives play? 3. Are there differences in the level of willingness among pharmacists practicing in different pharmacy settings? 4. How do pharmacists practicing in minority communities envision the “marketing” process evolving in their particular pharmacy setting? 5. How can we move patients into treatment?
Keywords: Tobacco, Pharmacies
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Grant from American Legacy Foundation