Charles Caley, PharmD, BCPP
CPNP Foundation Past President
The CPNP Foundation values the perspectives of individuals living with mental illness, as their perceptions enhance our understanding of their needs and struggles. At nearly every CPNP annual meeting, the Foundation has sponsored unique patient-focused events or programming to allow attendees to learn about patients’ personal experiences living with mental illness. In this issue of Kaleidoscope we bring you the final installment of the Photo Voice Project – see image below with caption.
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Charles Caley
Amy Werremeyer |
CPNP member Amy Werremeyer, PharmD, and her colleagues Gina Aalgaard Kelly, PhD, and Elizabeth Skoy, PharmD, at North Dakota State University spent much of the past 3 years conducting the “Photo Voice Project,” to better understand the experiences and perspectives of patients surrounding taking their medication. This project received funding from District 5 of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. As part of the study, patients were provided disposable cameras and instructions to construct a photographic display representing their life with medications. Then they were interviewed, both individually and in groups, to acquire additional information about the images captured with their cameras. Dr. Werremeyer and colleagues have learned that when a medication has not been given a meaning to the patient, then it is irrelevant to them, and they are less committed to adhering to the prescribed regimen. She adds, “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 their goals. The participants in our studies who had made those connections seemed to be the ones who took their medications most faithfully.” She concludes, “Patients have so much wisdom about their experiences and what they need in order to successfully manage their illnesses. We need to ask them about those experiences in order to deliver optimal care.” The CPNP Foundation is grateful to Dr. Werremeyer and her research team for sharing their images and findings with us. We are eager to learn about other projects and activities that psychiatric pharmacists are actively engaged in that allows us to have a better understanding of the perspectives of individuals living with mental illness. If you know of any on-going projects with this goal, please contact the CPNP Foundation to tell us about it. |
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“Scale Wars, a picture of our scale with my daily med box…Shows my weight gain as a side effect. [With] one medication, I gained 70 pounds, which was a lot to gain…Certain meds can slow down your appetite and I felt like I could never get full and I would eat a lot. I would get so tired and then I would want to sleep and so that didn’t help… Some people just blame you that you are just eating too much, but they could encourage you to do more [and] educate you about eating healthy. I think that is why some people just give up on some meds, I know I did…I looked [the weight gain side effect] up on my own, no one really told me.”
