A new survey from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy showed while many community pharmacists have interacted with patients who are at-risk for suicide at some point, there is a need for additional training programs so they can properly intervene in these situations.
Delesha Carpenter, Ph.D., MSPH, from the School’s Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, was the study’s corresponding author. Carpenter said as far as the research group is aware, the survey is the first to quantify how often community pharmacists encounter patients who exhibit suicide risk behaviors.
Carpenter surveyed 501 community pharmacy staff members in North Carolina to determine how often they encountered at-risk patients. While nearly 98 percent of respondents said they have worked with a patient who exhibited warning signs or had risk factors for suicide, only 8.8 percent said they worked at a pharmacy that provided resources for these patients. Of those who took the survey, 22.4 percent said they knew a patient who had died by suicide.
“What we found is quite shocking, particularly that over 20 percent of our sample had reported that they’d been asked to advise on lethal dosing or provide a lethal dose of medication,” Carpenter said.
The survey also assessed the interest among community pharmacists for additional resources to help at-risk patients. Of respondents, almost 90 percent said they wanted additional training on dealing with patients at risk of suicide and only 7 percent reported having any previous suicide prevention training. Washington is the only state that requires pharmacists to take suicide prevention training.
Carpenter’s study was co-authored by:
- Jill Lavigne, Ph.D., M.S., M.P.H., U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Evan Colmenares, Pharm.D., UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
- Kristin Falbo, M.S., VISN 2 Center for Excellence for Suicide Prevention
- Sherita Mosley, M.S.P.H., UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
The project was a collaboration with the Veterans Administration, which has its own suicide prevention program. Carpenter said she hopes to develop this program so it can be applicable for community pharmacists. The team is currently searching for additional funding to develop and test these training materials.