Mental Health

Involve pharmacists in mental health care.
Help people live longer and healthier lives.

A mental health illness can take 15 to 20 years off your life

Dialoguepharmacistpatient

On top of that, the medicines we use to treat mental health problems come with their own risks, and can cause new problems for already vulnerable patients.

How do we tackle complex medicine needs, for potentially isolated patients? By bringing medicine experts straight to those patients.

What we’re calling for:

  • Empowering pharmacists to manage the physical health of people with mental health conditions (with access to their records)
  • Development of a service to support people newly prescribed an antidepressant
  • Enabling pharmacists in the community to better support people with mental health problems
  • Training more specialist mental health pharmacists to be part of a multidisciplinary team across care settings.


Produced with help from: 

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The Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry welcomes this report and acknowledges the contribution that pharmacists can and do make in treating mental health conditions.

"As the numbers of older adults in the population is increasing, we are seeing an increase in the number of older people living with mental conditions. As this report highlights, often older people will have a number of different physical illnesses alongside their mental health conditions. It follows that health professionals, including the pharmacist, should be working together collaboratively, integrating different services to provide the best possible advice and support to meet these complex needs. 
Older people with mental health issues benefit from early recognition of their symptoms and prompt referrals to the best services to provide support and treatment. 

 
Pharmacists are uniquely well-placed to spot mental health issues such as depression or dementia as they see people with long-term conditions on a regular basis."

Dr Amanda Thompsell FRCPsych, Chair, Royal College of Psychiatry’s Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry


“National Voices is a champion of person-centred, coordinated care, which requires different health professionals working together, seeing the patient as a whole person, and taking mental health together with physical health. We are very pleased therefore that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is taking forward work which reflects these fundamentals”. 


Jeremy Taylor, Chief Executive, National Voices 

"At CPPE, we believe there is a vital role for pharmacy professionals across all healthcare sectors in helping to improve the lives of those living with mental health conditions.  The active engagement with our recent Mental Health Campaign has demonstrated an enthusiasm within the profession to improve their support for people living with mental health conditions.  Working together with the multidisciplinary team and enhancing pharmacy roles across system will help to provide individualised and holistic support for those with mental health conditions and ensure that those with physical health and mental health conditions receive parity of treatment.  


"This policy document from the Royal Pharmaceutical society provides recommendations that are key to enabling effective use of pharmacy resources across the healthcare system with the purpose of optimising person-centred care, supporting wellbeing and reducing premature mortality.  At CPPE we are pleased to endorse these recommendations, which if implemented will enable pharmacy teams to better support people with mental health problems and ensure they live longer and healthier lives."

Centre for Postgraduate Pharmacy Education