Pharmacy Practice Division faculty, Joe Zorek, associate professor (CHS), and Beth Martin, associate professor (CHS), along with Erika Nelson, DPH-4 student, partnered to develop and implement tobacco cessation services at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP).

The inaugural eight-week class enrolled employees at the SVdP Donation Processing Center in Madison, Wis. Coordinators used a team-based approach emphasizing peer support, behavior modification strategies, and medication therapy education and counseling. Participants had weekly group sessions and one-on-one sessions with a pharmacist.

Enrolled participants named themselves Team BeatNIC (i.e., beat nicotine) and elected to quit as a team on the same day. Forty-three percent remained smoke-free after 12 weeks. The post-course feedback from participants described the value of medication counseling, “learning how to overcome my fear,” and “redirecting my thoughts instead of smoking.” When asked how he/she would describe the course to others, one participant replied “The best life changing experience I have ever had.”

Zorek and Martin will offer tobacco cessation services semi-annually for employees at the SVdP Donation Processing Center. The course will be modified and offered for patients at the SVdP Charitable Pharmacy beginning in fall 2014.

The UW-Madison School of Pharmacy partnered with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to start the state’s first stand-alone charitable pharmacy in April 2013. The pharmacy serves as the primary practice site for Zorek, who will begin training pharmacy students at the site in July 2014 in medication therapy management and cardiovascular risk reduction services.