05 - Role of Pharmacy in Public Health Flashcards
What is the traditional involvement of pharmacy in public health?
Quite limited in the past due to lack of training in population-based services and few role models in the field.
What is an advantage that pharmacies can exploit to better provide public health services?
Pharmacies are found in most communities, easily accessible, and open extended hours.
What public health activities can pharmacies be involved in?
Education
Immunization
Emergency preparedness
Family Planning Services
Prevent and control disease & injury
How can pharmacies educate the public about health?
This can be passively via pamphlets, or proactive by identifying at-risk individuals and groups and providing education
What can pharmacies do in immunization drives?
Pharmacists can also administer vaccines conveniently and more cost-effectively compared to physician administered programs.
How can pharmacies improve the healthcare system’s emergency preparedness?
Store and distribute critical medicines and other healthcare supplies. They can also help predict public health crises by reporting OTC sales are people try to self medicate.
How do pharmacies contribute to family planning?
Pharmacies can support women’s health & choice by providing information and referrals. They can also provide timely access to emergency contraception.
How can pharmacies prevent and control disease or injury?
Prevention: sale of condoms to reduce STIs
Behaviour modification: smoking cessation clinics to mitigate lung and cardiovascular disease
Early detection of disease:
osteoporosis screening clinics, COVID-19 testing to prevent others from getting sick.
What are some barriers to participation by pharmacists in Public Health?
Physical design of the pharmacy: (pharmacists are found in the back of a pharmacy, far from where the patients are, lack of spaces for private consulting)
Lack of information and training
Time constraints
Lack of reimbursement
Lack of management support
How many people in Canada have HIV/AIDS?
Over 68,000 people in 2018 (<0.2%) and 2,561 new infections in one year.
What is the relationship between people who inject drugs (PWIDs) and HIV/AIDS?
The rate of infection among PWIDs is 59 times higher than the general population. They form 7.4% of all people with HIV in 2016
How can the healthcare system help PWIDs from contracting HIV/AIDS?
Telling people to stop injecting drugs because its unhealthy is not going to stop PWIDs.
We have to accept that PWIDs are unlikely to stop injecting in the short-term.
The focus of our efforts should be on encouraging individuals to engage in safer sex and drug use practices (Harm reduction).
What is Harm Reduction?
A series of policies, programs, and practices that aim primarily to reduce the adverse health, social, and economic consequences of the use of legal and illegal psychoactive drugs without necessarily reducing drug consumption
What are some harm reduction strategies?
Information and counselling on safer use of needles
Needle exchange programs
Safe Injection Sites
Counselling on safer-sex
Methadone clinics
Referrals to social services
Naloxone and Drug Assay Kits
What are some barriers to accessing harm reduction?
Limited number of locations and they follow traditional hours of service
Sources of clean needles are not accessible at night when the demand is the greatest
Difficult to reach due to illicit nature of their addiction
Harm-reduction strategies require persistent outreach
