Charles Caley, PharmD, BCPP
CPNP Foundation Past President
UPDATE: 2/1/2019 - The Mental Health Pharmacies directory project was discontinued in June 2018 and no longer exists online. Links have been removed from this article.
During the past 18 months, the CPNP Foundation has been working on developing a new website dedicated to recognizing mental health pharmacies in the United States. With the generous support of Otsuka and the efforts of our website development partners, GuideMark Health, we will be launching a website with a searchable directory in early-to-mid December. A static version exists now and can be seen at "mentalhealthpharmacies.com". This website is intended to be used by consumers, advocacy groups, pharmacists and other health care practitioners, psychiatry organizations and legislators.
The origins of the website are based in a project completed by the CPNP Foundation in 2012. That project, led by Glen Stimmel, was a collaborative effort with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI; nami.org) which culminated in a web-based survey completed by more than 1,000 NAMI members regarding their experiences with community pharmacists. In the survey report entitled "Characterizing the relationship between individuals with mental health conditions and community pharmacists", many positive contributions that community pharmacists were making while serving individuals with mental health conditions were acknowledged. In addition, new opportunities to help individuals living with mental health conditions achieve better treatment outcomes from their medications were identified. One important conclusion of the survey focused on individuals who do not receive the level of pharmacist services needed to optimize their medication outcomes. In such instances, those individuals should consider changing their community pharmacy to one that can fully meet their medication needs. Mental health pharmacies should be among the community pharmacies these individuals consider.
The first step being taken by the CPNP Foundation has been to identify community pharmacies that are dedicated to serving the mental health community. During this long process, approximately 300 mental health pharmacies have been identified—many of these are Genoa pharmacies (genoa-qol.com). Some of the other pharmacies identified include: the outpatient pharmacies at the Mental Health Center of Denver, First Avenue Pharmacy in Spokane, WA, Fairview Pharmacy in Minneapolis, Barney's Pharmacy in Augusta, GA, North Rock Pharmacy in Oklahoma City, Halls Pharmacy in Fort Worth, TX, Sellersville Pharmacy in Sellersville, PA, and Strong Ties Pharmacy in Rochester, NY.
During this process, we also spoke with several pharmacist representatives of these pharmacies to help us get a better sense of their practice. In addition to these discussions, we made several site visits to see these pharmacies in action. Through this process, we have been able to develop a definition of what a mental health pharmacy is. Presently, those pharmacies that were identified have been invited to complete an online survey (embedded in the website) that will provide the necessary information to make the website a searchable directory, and help future users of the directory understand the services that specific pharmacy's offer. In the coming year, the CPNP Foundation plans to increase the number of mental health pharmacies listed in the directory and to expand the amount of resource information available on the website.
The CPNP Foundation believes that individuals with mental health conditions should expect to engage a community pharmacist when needed, in order to best understand their medications and how to get the greatest benefit from them. During this process, the individual should be treated with respect and in a professional manner, and any discussions centered around medications should be performed in complete privacy. It is important to acknowledge that individuals with mental health conditions are free to use any community pharmacy (or mail order pharmacy) to obtain their prescription medications. However, the realities of high prescription volumes and busy, non-private environments makes it difficult for many individuals to access the knowledge, skill and support of community pharmacists. The CPNP Foundation believes that being able to access pharmacists in mental health pharmacies can provide an important option to individuals who may not be getting the most out of their medications.