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Abstract
Background: Mental illness is a worldwide health priority. As medication is commonly used to treat mental illness, community pharmacy staff is well placed to assist consumers.
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a multifaceted, community pharmacy medication support service for mental health consumers.
Method: Pharmacists and pharmacy support staff in three Australian states were trained to deliver a flexible, goal-oriented medication support service for adults with mental illness over 3–6 months. Consumer-related outcome measures included perceptions of illness and health-related quality of life, medication beliefs, treatment satisfaction and medication adherence.
Results: Fifty-five of 100 trained pharmacies completed the intervention with 295 of the 418 recruited consumers (70.6% completion rate); 51.2% of consumers received two or more follow-ups. Significant improvements were reported by consumers for overall perceptions of illness (p < 0.001), the mental health domain of quality of life (p < 0.001), concerns about medication (p = 0.001) and global satisfaction with medication (p < 0.001). Consumers also reported an increase in medication adherence (p = 0.005).
Conclusions: A community pharmacy mental health medication support service that is goal-oriented, flexible and individualised, improved consumer outcomes across various measures. While further research into the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of such a service is warranted, this intervention could easily be adapted to other contexts.
Acknowledgements
We thank our study participants and assistance from the mentors, Project Advisory Panel and Reference Group. The authors acknowledge all other members of the Mental Health Project team: Andrew Davey, Bradley McConachie, Rhonda Knights, Amary Mey, Kathy Knox and Jasmina Fezjic.
Declaration of interest
This study was funded by the Department of Health, Australian Government as part of the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement Research and Development Programme managed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. The financial assistance provided must not be taken as endorsement of the contents of this paper.
