Delivering harm reduction services is a key part of the pharmacist’s role and pharmacists should (and do) endeavour to offer these services to all people in their community, according to the Pharmacy Guild.
However, to deliver these services, the Guild says pharmacists must inevitably engage with people who use drugs and the people around them
Pharmacists and other health professionals1<superscript> may have difficulty initiating conversations with patients around harm reduction and illicit drug use.2<superscript>
To help pharmacists and other health professional engage with drug users and the people around them, Guild Learning and Development has developed a new online course, ‘Communication with people who use drugs’.
The module outlines considerations and strategies for communication with drug users and offers helpful examples and case studies.
Guild Learning and Development says it acknowledges the work of Harm Reduction Victoria in developing videos outlining the stigma that people who use drugs experience when accessing healthcare.
This activity has been accredited for 1 hour of Group 1 CPD (or 1 CPD credits) suitable for inclusion in an individual pharmacist’s CPD plan which can be converted to 1 hour of Group 2 CPD (or 2 CPD credits) on successful completion of relevant assessment activities.
To enrol in this course, please visit guilded.guild.org.au.
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Ray MK, Beach MC, Nicolaidis C, Choi D, Saha S, Korthuis PT. ‘Patient and provider comfort discussing substance use’. <itals>Fam Med<itals>, 2013; 45 (2): 109-17.
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Tommasello, AC. ‘Substance abuse and pharmacy practice: What the community pharmacist needs to know about drug abuse and dependence’. <itals>Harm Reduction Journal<itals>, vol. 1,1 3. 20/4/04, doi:10.1186/1477-7517-1-3.
