COMMUNITY pharmacy's role in supporting patients with mental health conditions needs to be given greater prominence in suicide prevention planning, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, believes.
Speaking during the opening plenary session of the Australian Pharmacy Professional Conference (APP) yesterday, Twomey told Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt, that pharmacies are "on the frontline when it comes to mental health".
"On 21 Apr the ABC ran a story with the headline, Pharmacists on the frontline of Australia's mental health battle - but they're forgotten," he said.
"They referenced a survey of community pharmacists across Australia and Canada that said 85% of respondents said they had interacted with someone who had thought about suicide, while 66% said a patient had voluntarily told them they had thought about taking their own life.
"It's a shocking set of statistics and it is really time for us to recognise that pharmacists are on the frontline when it comes to mental health.
"We need to do more and with your help and assistance we can do that.
"Minister, I know you have been a supporter of mental health training and support services, and I would ask that in the next iteration of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, consideration be given to community pharmacy's inclusion given our accessibility and the lever of trust our patients have in the advice that we give.
"[Because] for many we might be the first conversation that someone has [about their mental health], but we certainly don't want to be the last."
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