TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceived roles and barriers in caring for the people who are homeless
T2 - A survey of UK pharmacists
AU - Paudyal, Vibhu
AU - Gibson Smith, Kathrine Lesley
AU - MacLure, Katie
AU - Forbes-McKay, Katrina
AU - Radley, Andrew
AU - Stewart, Derek
N1 - Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Louise Pelosi, Rachael Shuttleton, Olivia McLaughlin and Clair Reid for survey administration and data input.
Funding
This research was funded by Robert Gordon University. The funder had no role design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.
PY - 2019/2
Y1 - 2019/2
N2 - Background Community pharmacists can be an accessible source for advice and support for the people who are homeless, given their utilisation of a variety of currently available services such as dispensing of medicines, drugs and alcohol services. Objective To determine community pharmacists’ training, experiences and behavioural determinants in counselling and management of homeless population. Setting UK community pharmacies. Method A questionnaire based on literature and theoretical domains framework was mailed to randomly sampled community pharmacies in England and Scotland (n = 2000). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Main outcome measures Pharmacists’ perspectives, pharmacists’ training, pharmacists’ experiences and behavioural determinants. Results A total of 321 responses (RR 16.1%) were received. Respondents indicated lack of knowledge, skills, intentions as well as contextual factors such as lack of guidelines impacted on their counselling and management of homeless patients. Less than a third (n = 101, 32.2%) indicated that they knew where to refer a homeless patient for social support. Broaching the subject of homelessness was outside their comfort zone (n = 139, 44.3%). Only four (1.2%) respondents could correctly answer all knowledge assessment questions. Conclusions Community pharmacist identified lack of education, training opportunities and guidelines in counselling and management of homeless patients. Targeting community pharmacists’ knowledge, skills and intention to provide care to the homeless patients may enable addressing health inequality through community pharmacy.
AB - Background Community pharmacists can be an accessible source for advice and support for the people who are homeless, given their utilisation of a variety of currently available services such as dispensing of medicines, drugs and alcohol services. Objective To determine community pharmacists’ training, experiences and behavioural determinants in counselling and management of homeless population. Setting UK community pharmacies. Method A questionnaire based on literature and theoretical domains framework was mailed to randomly sampled community pharmacies in England and Scotland (n = 2000). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Main outcome measures Pharmacists’ perspectives, pharmacists’ training, pharmacists’ experiences and behavioural determinants. Results A total of 321 responses (RR 16.1%) were received. Respondents indicated lack of knowledge, skills, intentions as well as contextual factors such as lack of guidelines impacted on their counselling and management of homeless patients. Less than a third (n = 101, 32.2%) indicated that they knew where to refer a homeless patient for social support. Broaching the subject of homelessness was outside their comfort zone (n = 139, 44.3%). Only four (1.2%) respondents could correctly answer all knowledge assessment questions. Conclusions Community pharmacist identified lack of education, training opportunities and guidelines in counselling and management of homeless patients. Targeting community pharmacists’ knowledge, skills and intention to provide care to the homeless patients may enable addressing health inequality through community pharmacy.
KW - Community pharmacist
KW - Community pharmacy
KW - Counselling
KW - Homeless
KW - Signposting
KW - United Kingdom
KW - Pharmacists/psychology
KW - Attitude of Health Personnel
KW - Cross-Sectional Studies
KW - Health Status Disparities
KW - Homeless Persons/education
KW - Humans
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Male
KW - Community Pharmacy Services/standards
KW - Counseling/methods
KW - United Kingdom/epidemiology
KW - Professional Role/psychology
KW - Adult
KW - Female
KW - Perception
KW - Surveys and Questionnaires
KW - Aged
KW - MORTALITY
KW - INDIVIDUALS
KW - HEALTH
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060207974&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/perceived-roles-barriers-caring-people-homeless-survey-uk-community-pharmacists
U2 - 10.1007/s11096-019-00789-4
DO - 10.1007/s11096-019-00789-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 30659491
VL - 41
SP - 215
EP - 227
JO - International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
JF - International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
SN - 2210-7703
IS - 1
ER -