University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Mental health first aid training needs of Australian community pharmacists

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 23:37 authored by Mark KirschbaumMark Kirschbaum, Gregory PetersonGregory Peterson, Heather BridgmanHeather Bridgman

Background: Pharmacists are highly accessible health care professionals and have regular interactions with consumers that suffer acute mental illness. Though pharmacists are trained in psychopharmacology, they lack formal mental health intervention skills. A solution to address this gap is to up-skill pharmacists in mental health first aid (MHFA).

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to establish the mental health first aid training needs for Australian rural pharmacists in the community setting. In addition, barriers to pharmacists providing MHFA support were ascertained.

Methods: This study was conducted in two parts. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight rural community pharmacists to ascertain enablers and barriers to MHFA training. Second, an online survey was conducted to assess the attitudes of pharmacists to MHFA and their training requirements. Data from the interviews were thematically analyzed.

Results: Six major themes were identified including evolving role of the pharmacist, importance of relationships, complexity of mental health, need for training in MHFA, low confidence and barriers to assisting in acute mental illness. Pharmacists were accepting of the need for MHFA, but expressed concern over their lack of training, time and resources. The survey results also supported these findings.

Conclusions: Pharmacists supported MHFA training, but expressed difficulties in balancing professional and business responsibilities. Given that pharmacists are accessible and regularly exposed to mental health, MHFA training should be a core component of pharmacists’ training and their primary health care role. Further research is needed to evaluate the benefits of such training in terms of the consumers’ mental health outcomes.

History

Publication title

Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning

Volume

8

Pagination

279-288

ISSN

1877-1297

Department/School

School of Health Sciences

Publisher

Elsevier Inc.

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

Copyright 2016 Elsevier Inc

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Mental health

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC