One Size FIts All
Among baggage reclaim carousels across the globe, passengers are reuniting themselves with exactly the same luggage in one country as they so trustingly parted from in another.
News in Brief
| Worlds Apart |
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| Written by Laure James - Editor Pharmacy in Focus | |
| Monday, 21 March 2011 13:37 | |
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Different countries’ customs and distant foreign lands may conjure images of holidays and getaways for the majority of us but for the team at Harrison Healthcare, understanding other cultures is all part of delivering pharmaceutical care for all. The South Belfast pharmacy won the Pharmacy in Focus Health Promotion Award sponsored by Martindale Pharmaceuticals in January, but have plotted for big changes since then. The pharmacy has become renowned in the Belfast area for its work with ethnic communities and different patient populations, offering everything from blood glucose monitoring among the Chinese population to promoting safe sex to students through to helping to inform and educate older people to take greater ownership of their health. Thanks to Harrison Healthcare, South Belfast is a much healthier place to live for thousands of local people but it doesn’t stop there. Colin Harrison and his team are developing new initiatives which to date include running a smoking cessation clinic in one of Belfast’s biggest enterprise sites to making the most of the pharmacy’s sophisticated new refit. The pharmacy’s reputation for outstanding service delivery looks set to become a broader one thanks to increased capacity through a consultation room and strengthened relationships with local organisations. “Health promotion for us is all about enabling people to take better control of their own health,” Colin told PiF. “We wanted to give them the tools to be able to look after themselves in terms of their health, assist them through our staff’s knowledge and the healthcare system’s framework, provide them with information which they want and also support with different patient resources. “The benefits of equipping patients and communities to be able to take ownership of their own health are self-evident. They often become stronger and more confident especially when it comes to managing chronic conditions. Some patients can almost seem afraid to take care of their own wellbeing due to a lack of knowledge about their condition or their treatment and while many access different sources of information to find out more about their health, not all people have access to the internet and those who do sometimes find the wrong sort of information. We have found that perhaps the elderly or those with social disadvantages can feel as if they have nowhere to turn to for advice so if we can continue to provide more information, such patient groups will have a greater understanding.” Looking towards the future, a smoking cessation drop-in clinic is high on the agenda. “We are definitely looking to increase our smoking cessation provision,” Colin added. “There are huge health promotion drives to encourage people to quit or cut down and that’s something we can very easily get involved with. The buildings in the Belfast Gasworks for instance have large employee communities and we can go in and explain smoking cessation to them, assess which stage individuals are at in terms of pre-contemplative, contemplative, active and so forth, make a first intervention before hopefully enrolling them onto the 12 week programme. I think that will certainly help to improve awareness of the pharmacy too. Unfortunately the public generally has a poor understanding of pharmacy services, so to raise awareness of what we actually do in terms of health promotion is always useful.” As will all community pharmacies, Harrison Healthcare is an accessible healthcare provider but Colin has identified that the key to health promotion is ensuring this works in both directions. “It is very important to reach out to different organisations and groups. We also wanted to bring in new groups and looked at the student population which was completely new for us; even though not many students live in our immediate catchment area we are situated on the periphery of the student community.” The pharmacy’s connections with Elm Court, a sheltered housing facility for older people have been particularly fruitful and pre-reg Adam Bartholomew has made a significant contribution to the service – and impressing the Pharmacy in Focus Awards judging panel. Colin and Adam were applauded for their work with Elm Court after they established a project to encourage residents to take greater responsibility for their own health and offered blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring. During 2010, the health promotion initiatives developed and delivered in Harrison Healthcare were driven by the future pharmacy contract, past experiences with their local Chinese community and their new shop refit. Broadening the geographical scope, Harrison Healthcare also started to deliver prescriptions to more local postcodes and areas. The pharmacy’s links with the Chinese community and local elderly residents were once again strengthened with successful workshops on diabetes and ethnic minorities, care of medicines, BP and blood glucose tests and smoking cessation. “These workshops were well attended at Hong Ling gardens and we had translators and a Chinese member of staff with us for the language barrier,” Colin explains. “Our refit, which took place in the early part of the year, lasted 3 months from planning to launch of new shop and services,” Colin explained. “We now offer CV risk assessment, BMI, BP and cholesterol checking and blood glucose testing. We also offer pregnancy testing, smoking cessation, weight management, EHC and medicines management. “We have some ideas of what we would like to become involved in over the next 12 months and well into 2012. We already have plans to take part in SHAG week, which is a sexual health promotion event with students in coordination with the NPA. The Association’s Northern Ireland representative Anne McAllister has helped us to learn more from other pharmacies’ success in England and how to engage with students. “We like to try and schedule a health promotion event every quarter and this works well to not only offer our pre-reg trainees an opportunity to become involved but also to have something different to discuss at each 13-week appraisal. We also plan to move to other sheltered dwellings in the community and are very keen to continue working with Elm Court and their centre management team. “This year has been brilliant. Winning the Pharmacy in Focus Health Promotion Award was a huge boost for us, especially after the challenge of the refit. However, we’re delighted to have a full consultation room now and definitely look forward to the months ahead. Our staff are highly valuable to us and we recognise that. We intend to continue rewarding and praising good work. We also want to develop our biggest assets by training the staff, and allowing them to help further develop our business.” |