Your local pharmacist is by your side this holiday season

The holiday season is underway, which brings its share of delights; seeing friends and family, enjoying great food and travelling on days off. The festive season also has its share of stresses and can wreak havoc on your health; especially since medication management isn’t always top-of-mind. Luckily, your local pharmacist is your first line of defense and most accessible healthcare practitioner, both during the holidays and throughout the year. Local pharmacist

“Pharmacists do so much more than just dispense medication,” says Sean Simpson, Chair of the Board, Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA). “They can offer medication management and tips to help you manage your health during the busy holiday season, and into the New Year.” Local pharmacist

Stay on Track This Holiday Season

Pharmacies are open throughout the holidays.

Pharmacists offer more convenient extended hours and are accessible without lengthy emergency room wait times – meaning you can stop in with a health question or to get your flu shot while you’re out taking care of last minute holiday shopping or in between social events. And if you’ve packed up and headed off to visit family out of town before realizing that your prescription medications were left behind, the local pharmacist there can help with that too.

If you are travelling overseas for the holidays, getting your travel vaccines has just gotten easier. As of December 15, 2016, pharmacists can administer select travel vaccinations including hepatitis A and B and typhoid.

New Year’s Resolutions

With the New Year just around the corner, pharmacists can also help patients tackle those daunting resolutions and meet health and wellness goals by providing support, information and education on managing chronic conditions and the effective use of vitamins and supplements.

According to Simpson, “pharmacists have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to health concerns like smoking cessation, weight management and navigating the often complicated world of vitamins and supplements. Pharmacists can help ensure that your health and well-being are properly managed year-round.”

Pharmacists have been trained to provide information and recommendations on:

Smoking cessation: If you are considering quitting smoking in 2017, your local pharmacist is available to help. In fact, pharmacy-based smoking cessation programs are proven to have a higher success rate than when individuals try to quit on their own.^[i],[ii] Pharmacists can also prescribe some smoking cessation medications, if appropriate.

Weight management: Pharmacists can help people meet their goals by offering information on weight management options and advice on lifestyle changes. Some pharmacies even offer weight management clinics and support!

Navigating the world of supplements: Patients are often unaware that supplements can have potentially dangerous interactions with prescription medications. Pharmacists are medication experts and can help patients determine whether a vitamin or supplement is appropriate and safe for them to take.

Best of all, most pharmacy services are offered without the need for an appointment, making your local pharmacist an accessible and important member of your healthcare team.

Give yourself the gift of a healthy, happy holiday! Visit your local pharmacist today and also visit pharmacistsoffermore.ca for more information.

_____________________

¹ Ontario Tobacco Research Unit. 2013 Annual Strategy Monitoring Report. Toronto:  Ontario Tobacco Research Unit.

^[1] Wong, L., Burden, A. M., Liu, Y. Y., Tadrous, M., Pojskic, N., Dolovich, L., … & Cadarette, S. M. (2015). Initial uptake of the Ontario Pharmacy Smoking Cessation Program Descriptive analysis over 2 years. Canadian Pharmacists Journal/Revue des Pharmaciens du Canada, 148(1), 29-40.

Via the Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA)