Stigma Research Project Results

Charles Caley, PharmD, BCPP

In the November 2016 issue of Kaleidoscope, Dr. Jerry McKee informed you about the stigma research project that the CPNP Foundation has been participating in with Dr. Vincent Giannetti and colleagues at Duquesne University Mylan School of Pharmacy. This stigma research project has direct roots embedded in the 2012 survey of NAMI members about their experiences with their community pharmacist.

This stigma research project involved developing an original, 101-item survey for community pharmacists which focused on their provision of pharmacy services and their comparative opinions about working with patients who have mental illness. The comparative opinions section of the survey measured pharmacists’ attitudes, perceptions and beliefs about patients diagnosed with a mental illness. Information about pharmacist demographics, knowledge and practice characteristics were also collected.

Results of this survey will be presented in full as part of two posters that have been accepted for presentation at the CPNP 2017 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, however, a brief review of several findings are provided below:

• On average, community pharmacists completing the survey reported feeling willing and interested in providing services to patients with mental illness, however they felt much less confident and comfortable in doing so. The services that respondents felt most comfortable and confident in providing to patients with mental illness involved patient education.
• Survey respondents rated confidence and comfort as being low when needing to ask patients about their therapeutic goals, as well as when speaking with physician’s about the patient’s medication. Interestingly, a key finding of the 2012 survey was that 75% of NAMI member respondents (n = 1,031) reported that they did not receive medication effectiveness monitoring assistance from their community pharmacist.
• Finally, respondent community pharmacists who had personal experience with mental illness reported lower levels of stigma and more positive attitudes and beliefs about patients with mental illness when compared to respondents without a personal experience with mental illness.

One of the important conclusions of this stigma research project has been that there remains a presence of mental illness stigma in community pharmacy. Thus, it is clear that there are opportunities to identify its causes, and to, more importantly, construct strategies that resolve this important barrier to pharmacist delivered care to patients with mental illness. Existing potential strategies to diminish mental illness stigma include community pharmacists and their staff completing mental health first aid training, and all pharmacy students receiving educational experiences that include direct, supervised contact with patients with mental illness.