A qualitative exploration of community pharmacist views on providing a mental health and well-being intervention for long-term condition patients

Background

Subthreshold depression and anxiety are common, affecting up to 24 % of people over their lifetime and are often associated with long-term conditions. Community pharmacists, who often have an established relationship with people who have long-term conditions, are well placed to identify and address subthreshold depression and anxiety and reduce the risk of progression to clinical mental health disorders.

Methods

Semi-structured individual qualitative interviews were conducted with community pharmacists to explore their perspectives on a pharmacy service for long-term condition patients with subthreshold depression and anxiety. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed in intelligent verbatim and analysed using a General Inductive Approach.

Results

Eleven purposively selected community pharmacists from diverse backgrounds were interviewed. Four main themes were identified, each with several subthemes. These related to existing support mechanisms for delivering long-term condition and mental health services in community pharmacies, pharmacists' perceptions and attitudes toward service delivery, barriers and facilitators to service implementation, and the design and implementation of a service.

Conclusions

This is the first study to explore community pharmacists' perspectives on a pharmacy intervention for long-term condition patients with subthreshold depression and anxiety. Overall, community pharmacists expressed positive attitudes toward delivering an intervention for people with long-term conditions and subthreshold depression and anxiety. Future work would involve taking a co-design approach to developing and evaluating such an intervention.