Pharmacy Daily | Canberra training calling

COMMUNITY pharmacists are heading to Canberra to gain specialised training to help the more than 24,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.

Mens Health Downunder (MHDU) founder and Canberra pharmacist Brad Butt is working with pharmacists from WA, SA and NSW over the coming weeks to provide education on the management of men's urological health conditions, following cancer treatment.

"In our communities, there are so many men living with urological health issues, and mental health concerns relating to those conditions, that can't get help.

Pharmacists and partners of TerryWhite Chemmart Chester Pass Albany, Joe Foster & Brad Smithson, have travelled from Albany, WA, to participate in the MHDU training.

"The ability to share this information we're learning, which should be far more readily available than it is, and having the ability to speak to men about something they may have not spoken about before, is paramount to why we're doing this," explained Foster.

"We're not going back to our community to let this slide."

The pair is planning to establish a clinic within their Albany pharmacy as an additional service for locals.

"I think, a lot of what we can do, is not just educating patients but educating our associated allied healthcare professionals around this as well," said Smithson.

"Patients come to us for their prescriptions and feel comfortable talking to us, and that leads to a longer consultation about something they might've wanted to talk about for a long time, then that's a good thing." JG

Pictured (L-R): Brad Butt, Brad Smithson and Joe Foster.