Page 78 - Retail Pharmacy Magazine October 2020

76 MENTAL HEALTH FROM PAGE 75 Prize,” he said, referring to the annual award to an Australian who has made outstanding contributions to either the promotion of mental health, or the prevention or treatment of mental illness. With the efforts of mental health experts and teams around Australia being acknowledged, including Swinburne University’s contributions, pharmacists are ideally placed to offer valuable support services. This work has been aided by the signing of the 7CPA in mid-June, delivering $1.2 billion in ongoing funding for patient-focused pharmacy programs that will provide greater access to pharmacists and support the safe and quality use of medicines for all Australians. Changes to medicines management programs in the agreement enable the maintenance of a cycle of care approach, including patient follow- up, to support quality and safe use of medicines, particularly for older Australians, as well as an opportunity for significant policy reforms, particularly in the areas of aged care and mental health. This focus on mental health in aged care highlights the importance of pharmacists being able to approach elderly people who show signs of suffering from mental health disorders. Swinburne University of Technology Professor of Psychology Sunil Bhar tells Retail Pharmacy he empathises with pharmacists on the frontline because very little information is specifically directed at how to approach older people suffering from mental health issues. However, having been a director for Swinburne’s Wellbeing Clinic for Older Adults for more than a decade, he says he has learnt much on the subject. Telehealth counselling for the aged Professor Bhar says the clinic launched a free, national telehealth counselling and support service for aged care residents and their families as well as aged care workers in mid-May to provide emotional support to older adults in care facilities. The clinic was opened in 2011 as an experiment to determine whether the university could reach older people living in aged care and offer them counselling and psychological treatment. A decade ago, he says, “there was very little of these types of services around”. “We also felt that it was a good opportunity to fill a gap in the service industry by training postgraduate students with some competencies in this area,” he said of the clinic’s early days. With the advent of Covid-19, aged care facility residents have been experiencing increased feelings of anxiety, loneliness and isolation due to face-to-face visit restrictions, making the delivery of remote services necessary. “Coronavirus was the trigger point for us to think about how we can continue our Melbourne-based service to aged care facilities through some kind of national telehealth modality, with the major question being whether it would be possible to deliver counselling “With the advent of Covid-19, aged care facility residents have been experiencing increased feelings of anxiety, loneliness and isolation due to face-to-face visit restrictions, making the delivery of remote services necessary.” RETAIL PHARMACY • OCT 2020