Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration in Pharmaceutical Care for People with Serious Mental Illness: the Perspectives of Pharmacy Professionals

Abstract

Background Individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) often suffer from multimorbidity (both psychiatric and somatic) which requires an interprofessional treatment approach by several healthcare professionals, such as pharmacists, nurses, psychiatrists and psychologists. Previous contact between the research team and pharmacy professionals indicates that pharmacy professionals are little involved in interprofessional teams surrounding patients with SMI, which is noteworthy because these people often use an array of different medications. Objectives This research aims to investigate the frequency of current and desired communication and collaboration and the positive and negative experiences of community pharmacy professionals with the communication and collaboration with mental healthcare (MHC) professionals in the Netherlands. Design A hybrid digital survey. Participants Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacies in the Netherlands. Main outcome measures The frequency of current and desired communication over the last three months between pharmacy and six different MHC professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurse specialists (MH-NS), social psychiatric nurses (SPN), case managers and mental health practice assistants (MH PA)), the difference between current and desired frequencies of contact between pharmacy professionals working in cities and villages, the topics discussed in the contacts, the reachability of MHC prescribers compared with somatic healthcare prescribers, the pleasantness of communication and collaboration with MHC prescribers compared with somatic healthcare prescribers (quantitative) and the positive and negative experiences of pharmacy professionals in the communication and collaboration with MHC professionals (qualitative). Results Pharmacists provided 147 responses and pharmacy technicians filled out 92 surveys. Pharmacists desired significantly more contact with psychiatrists (p=0.012), SPN’s (p=0.035) and psychologists (p=0.008) than they currently have. The topics participants discussed most with MHC professionals were questions on dosage (80.5%), and on medication choice (73.2%). Participants had positive experiences with the willingness of MHC professionals to consult with them. They experienced the consultations as pleasant and MHC professionals answered their questions well. Participants were negative about the reachability of MHC professionals. Conclusions Pharmacy professionals were satisfied with the collaboration with MHC professionals. They did however experience difficulties in reaching MHC professionals. Pharmacists desired significantly more contact with psychiatrists, SPN’s and psychologists while pharmacy technicians need less contact with MH PA’s than they currently have.