Over the past five years, School of Pharmacy faculty member Eleanor Vogt, PhD, RPh, has co-developed and implemented a program for hundreds of employees of the city and county of San Francisco that imparts tools to reduce stress and increase resiliency.

The collaboration with the city started with workshops for municipal transportation and public utility workers, and has since expanded to include public health, human resources, arts, and library employees.

The interactive workshops train workers to use tools that include deep breathing, visualization, mindfulness, storytelling, reframing mind-sets, and “heart-centered appreciation”—focusing on the feeling of gratitude. Vogt also discusses the emerging research that supports these practices.

Now Vogt, a faculty member in the School’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy, and Henry Kahn, MD, UCSF School of Medicine, who has partnered with her on the program, will be training city workers to teach these workshops themselves, starting with the San Francisco Public Library system.

Addressing this innovative new role for pharmacists as health care providers, Vogt notes, “Just as we immunize for flu, we can immunize for stress.”

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UCSF Develops Program to Help San Francisco Workers Deal with Stress on the Job