Charles Caley, PharmD, BCPP
CPNP Foundation Past President
The CPNP Foundation and CPNP value the contributions and perspectives of individuals living with mental illness, as they inform our empathic understanding of their needs and struggles. CPNP member Amy Werremeyer, PharmD and her colleagues Gina Aalgaard Kelly, PhD and Elizabeth Skoy, PharmD at North Dakota State University have spent much of the last 3 years conducting research to better understand the medication related experiences of patients with mental illness.
Art events have included the Many Faces of Mental Illness Mask exhibit, 2006, Baltimore and the Art Awakenings Exhibit, 2014, Scottsdale. Lastly, keynote addresses have focused on this patient focused perspective. These include Dr. Nancy Andreason’s “Creative Genius” presentation, 2008, Phoenix and Elyn Saks, JD presentation about her life with schizophrenia and the “Center Cannot Hold,” 2009, Jacksonville, the Terry Wise, JD presentation “Inside the Suicidal Mind,” 2010, San Antonio, and finally the Michael Friedman, PhD presentation “Stigma and Psychiatric Disorders: Understanding and Managing Personal Biases,” 2015, Tampa. These events are among the most memorable components of the Annual Meetings because of the unique insights and revelations they provide.
In an effort to continue to emphasize the perspectives of individuals living with mental illness, the CPNP Foundation recently learned of the important work of CPNP member Amy Werremeyer and her colleagues Gina Aalgaard Kelly, PhD and Elizabeth Skoy, PharmD at North Dakota State University. Dr. Werremeyer’s group has spent much of the past 3 years conducting research to better understand the medication related experiences of patients with mental illness. This work, the “Photo Voice Project,” received funding from District 5 of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
The research group provides individuals living with mental illness disposable cameras and instructions to construct a photographic display of their life with medications. Participants typically take two months to complete their task. Following the assignment, participants are interviewed, both individually and in groups, to acquire additional information about the images captured with their cameras. To date, the group has worked with 27 patients. Dr. Werremeyer states, “Much of what we learned was that if the medication has not been given a meaning (to the patient), then the medication was irrelevant to them, i.e., they could take it or leave it.” She continues, “I think it's got to be part of our job as pharmacists to help patients connect their medication with a meaning…to help them understand how the medication can allow them to achieve what they want. The participants in our studies who had made those connections seemed to be the ones who took their medications most faithfully.”
Dr. Werremeyer’s work underscores the importance of pharmacists developing a therapeutic alliance with their patients. Achieving this important patient care goal allows the pharmacist greater opportunity to engage in honest discussions about the connections that patients have, or do not have, with their medications. Dr. Werremeyer concludes, “Patients have so much wisdom about their experiences and what they need to successfully manage their illnesses. We need to ask them about those experiences in order to deliver optimal care.”
Kaleidoscope will feature an additional photographic image from this research in each of the next two issues.
“Meds are expensive…[after] I was layed off [from work] I [did] not fill my prescriptions…[since] I am not putting any money into the family…I did not want to take anything out.”