Gatekeeper training needs of community pharmacy staff

Abstract

Objective To develop an online suicide prevention gatekeeper training program to prepare community pharmacy staff to communicate with patients who exhibit warning signs of suicide. Method A convenience sample of 17 community pharmacy staff members completed a 1‐hr semi‐structured interview during which they viewed content from an existing gatekeeper training program and provided suggestions for improvement. Once thematic saturation was achieved, interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by two independent coders who reached consensus on the themes present in each transcript. Results Participants noted barriers to communicating about suicide, including lack of time and privacy, discomfort with using the word “suicide” and limited referral options. Participants wanted gatekeeper training to include local suicide prevention referral resources, take less than 30 min to complete, and incorporate 3–4 realistic role play scenarios, including a phone interaction. Conclusions Many environmental, interpersonal, and individual‐level barriers complicate pharmacy staff members’ ability to act as gatekeepers and communicate about suicide with at‐risk patients. To maximize the public health impact of pharmacy staff, skills‐based training on how to identify, communicate with, and refer at‐risk patients is needed. Gatekeeper training should model brief, realistic interactions with patients and provide pharmacy staff with local referral resources.

Suicide Prevention in Nigeria: Can Community Pharmacists Have a Role?

“…A Washington State survey assessing pharmacy students’ confidence, knowledge, and skills in suicide prevention pre- and post-training reported their increased confidence and skills in recognising suicide warning signs and their ability to have an emotional connection and intervene [ 38 ], supporting all the studies that have been identified in this commentary [ 7 , 11 , 12 , 25 , 33 ].…”

“…As stated previously, community pharmacists could have a significant role in suicide prevention through pharmacist–patient interaction and medication management, which is classified as restricting access to means [ 7 ]. Furthermore, community pharmacists could be a link to other healthcare systems in terms of referral and triage [ 12 , 25 ].…”

“…Lack of adequate training could influence how community pharmacists interact with people about suicide. Studies have reported low confidence in interacting with those at risk based on how to communicate, the right language, and where to refer patients [ 9 , 12 , 25 , 38 ].…”

“…Without commensurate financial incentives, community pharmacists may not be motivated to provide suicide risk assessment services and have limited time to provide such services [ 25 ].…”

Performing Arts in Suicide Prevention Strategies: A Scoping Review

“…The selected studies are characterized by their extreme heterogeneity in terms of study design, type and size of populations studied, their purpose, and outcomes. Of the 35 included studies, most of them were observational studies without a control group ( n = 22) [ 30 , 50 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 ], four were quasi-experimental prospective controlled studies [ 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 ], four were cross-sectional studies [ 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 ] and five were randomized control trials (RCTs) [ 18 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 ].…”