TY - JOUR
T1 - Community pharmacists’ experiences and people at risk of suicide in Canada and Australia
T2 - a thematic analysis
AU - Murphy, Andrea L.
AU - Ataya, Randa
AU - Himmelman, Dani
AU - O’Reilly, Claire
AU - Rosen, Alan
AU - Salvador-Carulla, Luis
AU - Martin-Misener, Ruth
AU - Burge, Fred
AU - Kutcher, Stanley
AU - Gardner, David M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the Dalhousie Pharmacy Endowment Fund (DPEF). Funding supported all core activities of the study including survey development, deployment, sample recruitment, and analysis. RA received funding as a research trainee through the DPEF Grant. Funding from the Pharmacy Council of New South Wales supported the Australian component of the study. The initial meetings for ALM and DMG to collaborate with Australian colleagues to prepare the DPEF Grant proposal were supported by funding from the Drug Evaluation Alliance of Nova Scotia through sabbatical support for ALM and DMG. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Timothy F Chen and Ms. Stephanie Webster for the contributions to the successfully funded DPEF Grant and to Ms. Kirstie Smith with her assistance in manuscript formatting. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This study was funded by the Dalhousie Pharmacy Endowment Fund (DPEF). Funding supported all core activities of the study including survey development, deployment, sample recruitment, and analysis. RA received funding as a research trainee through the DPEF Grant. Funding from the Pharmacy Council of New South Wales supported the Australian component of the study. The initial meetings for ALM and DMG to collaborate with Australian colleagues to prepare the DPEF Grant proposal were supported by funding from the Drug Evaluation Alliance of Nova Scotia through sabbatical support for ALM and DMG. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Timothy F Chen and Ms. Stephanie Webster for the contributions to the successfully funded DPEF Grant and to Ms. Kirstie Smith with her assistance in manuscript formatting.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2018/11/1
Y1 - 2018/11/1
N2 - Purpose: To explore Canadian and Australian community pharmacists’ practice experiences in caring for people at risk of suicide. Methods: We conducted a thematic analysis of 176 responses to an open-ended extension question in an online survey. Results: Four themes were identified and include referrals and triage, accessibility for confiding, emotional toll, and stigma. Subthemes included gatekeeping the medication supply, sole disclosure, planning for end of life, concerns of support people, assessing the validity of suicidality, gaps in the system, not directly asking, ill-equipped, resources in the pharmacy, relying on others to continue care, and attention seeking. Conclusions: Community pharmacists are caring for patients at risk of suicide frequently, and often with patients seeking the help of pharmacists directly. Pharmacists engage in activities and actions that would be considered outside of the traditional dispensing roles and provide support and intervention to people at risk of suicide through collaboration and other mechanisms. Further research to determine appropriate education and training and postvention supports is required.
AB - Purpose: To explore Canadian and Australian community pharmacists’ practice experiences in caring for people at risk of suicide. Methods: We conducted a thematic analysis of 176 responses to an open-ended extension question in an online survey. Results: Four themes were identified and include referrals and triage, accessibility for confiding, emotional toll, and stigma. Subthemes included gatekeeping the medication supply, sole disclosure, planning for end of life, concerns of support people, assessing the validity of suicidality, gaps in the system, not directly asking, ill-equipped, resources in the pharmacy, relying on others to continue care, and attention seeking. Conclusions: Community pharmacists are caring for patients at risk of suicide frequently, and often with patients seeking the help of pharmacists directly. Pharmacists engage in activities and actions that would be considered outside of the traditional dispensing roles and provide support and intervention to people at risk of suicide through collaboration and other mechanisms. Further research to determine appropriate education and training and postvention supports is required.
KW - Medications
KW - Mental disorders
KW - Pharmaceutical services
KW - Pharmacists
KW - Suicide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049005696&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00127-018-1553-7
DO - 10.1007/s00127-018-1553-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 29936597
AN - SCOPUS:85049005696
SN - 0933-7954
VL - 53
SP - 1173
EP - 1184
JO - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
JF - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
IS - 11
ER -
