Building bridges between community pharmacy and psychosocial care: the detection, discussion and referral of psychosocial problems in a pilot study with trained pharmacists

Eva Rens

Keywords: community pharmacy, psychosocial care, mental health

Background:

Community pharmacists are increasingly consulted for healthcare advice and wellbeing promotion beyond medication management. Because of their high accessibility and trustworthiness, community pharmacists are in a good position to detect unmet psychosocial needs of their patients.

Research questions:

A collaboration between community pharmacy and psychosocial work was set up in Flanders, Belgium. During the pilot phase of the project, named “CAVAsa”, the feasibility and potential of this collaboration was investigated. Community pharmacists were trained to detect and discuss a wide range of psychosocial needs (e.g., mental health problems, family problems, substance abuse…), to inform patients about possible help and to refer them to a Flemish Center for General Welfare Work if needed.

Method:

A total of 71 pharmacists participated. The study phase ran from October 2021 until January 2022. All contacts in which psychosocial wellbeing was discussed had to be registered using an online form. Moreover, focus group discussions were used to explore the pharmacists’ experiences, barriers and facilitators in taking up a role in psychosocial care.

Results:

During the study phase, 79 patient contacts about psychosocial wellbeing were registered. The majority of patients were middle aged females. Family problems and mental health problems were discussed the most. Focus group discussions with 28 participating pharmacists revealed that they feel comfortable in taking up this role and recognize its added value. Patient satisfaction is a major driver. However, partly due to the coinciding COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacists experienced time constraints which may have resulted in an under-detecting and under-reporting of psychosocial problems.

Conclusions:

An intersectoral collaboration between community pharmacy and psychosocial care is feasible and promising. Adequate training about psychosocial wellbeing and care is crucial.

Points for discussion:

Should pharmacists take up an active role in psychosocial care?

Is it better for pharmacists to directly refer to psychosocial care, or is better to discuss this with the GP first?

What else can we do to detect people with unmet psychosocial needs (e.g. untreated mental health problems, domestic violence..)

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