Abercynon Pharmacy provides Stop Smoking Clinic
Sheppard’s Pharmacy in Abercynon has been running a dedicated weekly clinic to help people to stop smoking.
For many years, pharmacies have supported smokers to quit through a variety of different methods, including providing direct support and advice, and advising on and providing nicotine replacement therapies over the counter. Participating pharmacies have also collaborated with partners such as Help Me Quit to better support smokers wishing to stop smoking.
The Sheppard’s Pharmacy team has gone one step further. They have been running a smoking cessation clinic every Wednesday providing dedicated time and place for smokers looking to quit to access support and advice. Smokers can drop in any time during the day. The pharmacy team also offers weekly one-to-one sessions to smokers, which reduce to fortnightly sessions, for a total period of up to 12 weeks.
The clinics and the sessions add to and enhance the traditional smoking cessation services provided by the team. To date the clinic has supported nine people, represenings an increase on previous numbers. The pharmacy team believes that the drop-in clinic model has attracted the majority of the people currently attending.
Roslyn Williams, a pharmacy technician that supports the clinic said: “The clinic enables myself and the team to focus on supporting people to stop smoking, getting to know those attending and offering them more dedicated time free of distractions. I feel that the clinic has also helped my own professional development, as I’m always trying to improve my knowledge of methods to help smokers wanting to quit.
“People attending the drop-in clinics have said that they feel more comfortable accessing the service, knowing that an extra member of staff is dedicated to supporting them. They don’t feel that they are imposing on the pharmacy team, or “putting them out”. This was really interesting as we hadn’t previously considered that the public felt that asking for help to quit smoking could be an imposition to staff, or that this was a barrier to accessing smoking cessation services, but it clearly can be an issue.”
“I think that these dedicated clinics are extremely positive and I’d love to see them available more widely.”
Jason Caroll,Principal Pharmacist – Community Services, CTMUHB, said: “Pharmacy teams work at the very centre of our communities, providing NHS services and expert care to the whole population. Smokers accessing support are up to 300% more likely to successfully quit. Thousands of people have stopped smoking with support from their local community pharmacy.
“The clinic model being used by this Abercynon pharmacy team enables them to offer further support and dedicated time to help smokers who want to quit. It is fantastic to see this pharmacy team developing innovative and accessible services for people in the local community.”
If you would like to find out more information on how to quit smoking, please visit: https://www.helpmequit.wales/what-choices-are-there-for-me/
08/07/2024