GSK Consumer Healthcare has unveiled a three-year programme to support pharmacists with better training, mental health provisions and ways to manage their workload.
The programme follows a roundtable hosted by GSK Consumer Healthcare in collaboration with the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) earlier this. The roundtable featured the pharmacy community, policy experts, and industry leaders, where they discussed the role of pharmacy in the age of self-care following the Covid-19 pandemic.
GSK Consumer Healthcare’s new three-year programme is featured in its report, Standing with Pharmacists in the Age of Self-Care. That report identified six barrier the global pharmacy community is facing, and which are preventing them from fulfilling their role. These are: workload; remuneration; limited education on disease prevention; public misperceptions of pharmacists’ expertise; integration challenges within the wider healthcare system; and support for identifying and addressing low health literacy among health consumers.
GSK Consumer Healthcare’s three-year programme advocates for pharmacy policy and regulation change, whilst also offering a range of support, training, and tools for pharmacists to help them address barriers identified in the roundtable.
“We’ve seen Covid-19 have a significant impact on consumers’ understanding of self-care, leading to an increased focus on wellbeing and everyday healthcare. During this time, pharmacies played a vital role in providing care and advice to their patients – particularly with many other health facilities closed. Our research shows that more than half of Europeans are planning to consult their pharmacist more often than before the pandemic. Yet in general, pharmacists remain under-utilised, despite being the most widely distributed health resource in Europe,” said Tess Player, global head of Expert at GSK Consumer Healthcare.
In the programme’s first year (2021-2022), GSK’s focus will be on providing mental health and wellbeing support for pharmaceutics and pharmacy teams. Part of this will include the development of behavioural change tools and guidance for pharmacists in self-care conversations.
In its second year (2022-2023), the programme will look to help pharmacists manage their workload and wellbeing through the development of patient information and diagnostic tools. The second year will also help pharmacists identify and support health literacy challenges via an assessment tool.
In its final year (2023-2024), the programme will focus on improving the public’s awareness of the role of pharmacists in self-care among health consumers. This will include working with pharmacists to develop resources that improve health literacy, including public awareness initiatives and community health tracking.
All of GSK Consumer Healthcare’s commitment will be underpinned by an advocacy programme to support policy and regulatory change.
“We are proud partners to pharmacists everywhere and are committed to supporting the global pharmacy community to fulfil its critical role in building public health literacy and providing expert care. Our three-year plan is only the beginning; we have spent years working with experts to gain a better understanding of the barriers the pharmacy community faces and how we can empower them to fulfil their utmost potential,” Tess Player continued.
"The Covid-19 pandemic accentuated the crucial role pharmacists play in consumers’ self-care routines. Self-care involves a variety of actions that patients take to manage their health. Pharmacists play an important role in guiding patient's self-care behaviours. Thorough assessment and effective communication are crucial to meaningful self-care counselling. Pharmacists can act as advocates who empower patients and help them make healthy lifestyle choices, recommend appropriate OTC medications, and educate consumers about when they should consult a physician,” said Lars-Åke Söderlund, vice president of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, FIP.
“As the global healthcare system continues to evolve, self-care is expected to have an increasing role in treating certain minor ailments, and pharmacists are at the forefront of these changes, and can lead the ‘self-care revolution’”, Söderlund continued.