Pharmacy DailyPharmacy Daily | PSA helps fight smoking

QUIT Victoria has enlisted the help of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) in the battle against smoking addiction.

Under the new partnership, pharmacists in Victoria will be offered in-store materials such as signage, free training workshops will operate across metro and regional Victoria, and a public awareness campaign will launch aimed at encouraging smokers to talk to their local pharmacist about treatment options.

"Pharmacists are highly respected in the community and could play an even bigger role in helping smokers to quit," said the director of Quit Victoria Dr Sarah White.

"This partnership has been designed to not only provide pharmacists with new tools to help their customers, but also to alert customers that pharmacists have a lot to offer when it comes to increasing the chances they can quit successfully."

In Jan of this year, Quit Victoria asked 58 Victorian pharmacists about their attitudes towards quitting smoking & found that only 10% of pharmacists said customers "often" ask them about quitting, conversely 90% of pharmacists believed they were successful in influencing a person's smoking.

"A lot of patients don't understand that some prescription medications and some common health conditions, such as diabetes or wound healing, are adversely affected by tobacco use," PSA Victorian branch president Ben Marchant said.

"This focus on the pharmacist's role in quitting will help patients understand why it is so critical pharmacists ask about smoking."

The new joint-initiative arrives after Cancer Council Victoria recently revealed lung cancer as the biggest cancer killer of Victorians, with lung cancer taking over breast cancer as number one for women.