COMMUNITY PHARMACY SERVICE INITIATIVE BRONAGH WARD, MCDONALDS PHARMACY, CASTLE HEALTHCARE
supported by
Your Partner of Choice
Bronagh Ward, McDonalds Pharmacy, Castle Healthcare, Rebecca Cabrejas, Generics Business Manager, Accord Healthcare and UCA President, Cliff McElhinney
Mcdonalds Pharmacy is situated in one of Belfast’s most notorious flashpoint areas: the bottom of the castlereagh road in East Belfast. the area – which encompasses the Short Strand area - is not only divided across sectarian lines, but is a relatively underprivileged area, with all of the associated health issues.
as the ‘frontline’ healthcare professional, pharmacist Bronagh Ward had noticed that there wasn’t much available in the local area for older people and so she sought to address this issue Bronagh was particularly interested in providing some form of access to healthcare for males in the area as, as with most healthcare professionals, she recognised how difficult it is to encourage males to address health issues.
In order to assist her objectives – and to create a more structured, community-based approach - Bronagh contacted the Short Strand community forum: a group which was established with the prime objective of relieving poverty and sickness in the area and of providing facilities to improve conditions for people of the area.
the forum were very enthusiastic – and constructive – about assisting Bronagh in encouraging people to come forward to both facilitate the group and to participate in it. Bronagh was also introduced to a local volunteer, Bernie Mcconnell, who was to prove instrumental in providing leads for the project, as she regularly visited older adults in the area to provide assistance and support to them.
36 - PharMacY In focUS
for her part, Bronagh told the group about Building community Pharmacy Partnership and about how they could apply for funding if the forum would partner her in this initiative. Everyone was, from the outset, fully committed to ensuring this project’s success.
It was decided that this project would focus on working with older people, addressing issues surrounding isolation, mental health, diet and nutrition, exercise and minor ailment, and that links would be made with other healthcare professionals. Bronagh partnered up with Bernie in many aspects of the project, creating a programme that was tailored to the interests of the participants.
While Bernie sorted all of the logistics – rooms, venues etc – and worked hard to attract people that she knew would be ideal for this initiative, Bronagh organised speakers and multiple agencies to provide information and support on a wide range of subjects, such as debt management and finance.
Since she called in with many of the local residents on a regular basis, Bernie knew about the various health issues that were prevalent in the area. She informed Bronagh, for example, that many people in the area suffered from the cold in the winter as they were going without heating. there were also issues related to cooking – with many inclined to just eat toast to save money or because they had lost interest in cooking. as a result, many did not enjoy a proper, balanced diet.
In order to deal with dietary issues, Bronagh organised for a chef to come along and talk to the
participants about cooking for one person on a budget. he then prepared various suitable dishes and the clients enjoyed the meal that followed. Bronagh followed up this practical demonstration with a talk on achieving a balanced diet.
When it came to the reminiscence work that Bernie had discussed with her, Bronagh organised for a member of the reminiscence network to come along and take the clients back to their childhood. this was very well received by those who attended and this presentation provided Bronagh with the opportunity to then talk about mood and about how to raise mood through visualisation techniques, exercise etc.
the benefits of this project for the participants were many and varied. from a pharmacy point of view, the project was instrumental in bringing the vast range of pharmacy services to the attention of the participants. Many of them didn’t realise, for example, that the pharmacy could provide such a wide range of services to patients, such as medipack trays that were available for delivery.
Both Bronagh and Bernie noticed a marked increase in morale among the participants and the questionnaires that each client filled in clearly showed this to be true. When it came to feedback, every client said that they had experienced health gains and had increased their knowledge of both medication and health issues, such as winter health. Many admitted that, as a result of the intervention by the pharmacist, they had now begun to take their medicines properly.
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