MENTAL HEALTH
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES ARE INCREASINGLY COMING UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT THROUGHOUT HEALTHCARE. HERE, THREE PHARMACISTS WHO ATTENDED THE RECENT ‘MENTAL HEALTH IN SCOTLAND: PUTTING PATIENTS AT THE CENTRE OF MEDICINES AND INNOVATION’ CONFERENCE, TELL JOHN MACGILL HOW THEY VIEW THEIR ROLE IN DEALING WITH PATIENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES.
MENTAL HEALTH: THREE PERSPECTIVES
OMMAR AHMED, SPECIALIST CLINICAL PHARMACIST IN MENTAL HEALTH, THE ROYAL EDINBURGH HOSPITAL, NHS LOTHIAN
Where I work, in the acute mental health wards, decision processes about choice of medicine vary. If a patient is deemed to have the capacity or the insight, they are involved in the decision making regarding choice of medication. However, if a patient is not in a position to give informed consent because they are acutely unwell, then the decisions are made by the healthcare team supported by evidence-based medicine, keeping the patient’s best interests at heart.
8 - 8 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
I am quite lucky to be part of a team that is multidisciplinary. We work together to establish patients’ needs and decide on the most suitable medication for each patient on ward rounds or during daily handovers. As a pharmacist, I am mainly involved in providing advice in complex cases because there are not enough pharmacists to be at every consultation. I do provide counselling to patients if they have asked to discuss their medication with me, but not often. The truth is that the role of the clinical pharmacist in hospitals is not well recognised among patients. Patients don’t see the point in repeating the same information
to another person, and they are also sometimes suspicious about people they don’t already know. However, sometimes patients want to talk to me, or the medical team refer a patient to me to work with that patient, which allows me to help that person understand their treatment and, if required, discuss alternative treatment options.
I don’t think the resources available giving information on medicines to patients are very good. Quite often the information leafl ets are not easy to read, and patients can feel overwhelmed with the information provided in these leafl ets. The medicines themselves have hardly
changed. For example, clozapine is regarded as the gold standard treatment for the management of schizophrenia. It was introduced to the market in the early 1970s! There has not been another antipsychotic developed since clozapine that works as effectively as clozapine. In fact, I don’t think we really understand how clozapine works after almost 50 years because there is little research in this area. Contrast that with the pace of change in our understanding of oncology medicines: the difference is enormous.
The hospital that I work in has recently been moved to a newly purpose- built facility, but the number of beds
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