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Community21 has selected some case study communities and projects to share across the network to inspire and inform others. Should we be featuring yours? If so get in touch.
Active Pharmacy
The project aimed to enable interaction between older people (defined as those over 60 years) taking medication on a regular basis, and pharmacy students from the University of Brighton around use of those medications.
The project took the work of Dispensing with the Mystery and the Activity Buddies project further, by developing a ‘roadshow’ style format where pharmacy students were trained in aspects of the practicalities of medicine-taking, and shared that information with older people in residential home environments or coffee-mornings etc. Essentially, after completing their training, students participated in a suitable event and gave a presentation (a brief session) about some aspects of medicines, before meeting individually with older medicine takers to talk about their specific medications and related issues. After gaining information about the medicines involved, students’ researched suitable responses or answer to queries. (To ensure safety, the answers were checked by a qualified pharmacist on the academic staff). Students then gave the older person feedback about what they found at follow up sessions during the following two weeks.
This project contributed greatly to social inclusion in and around Brighton and Hove initially by contact with relatively small groups of older people. By improving understanding and use of medication and using this information in local initiatives there are health and economic impacts on the local health economy. Ultimately, the roadshow ‘package’ might be developed and disseminated to other clinical teaching environments.
The University has benefitted from the greater understanding of issues surrounding medication for many different groups of older people, and future partnerships will be sought with groups including people with specific difficulties such as hearing or sight impairment, people with mental health difficulties as well as ethnic and cultural barriers.
Academic Partner
School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Supervisor
Mike Ellis-Martin Senior Lecturer, School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
@ctive student
Beth Thomas-Hancock
Student Volunteering Manager, Student Services
Community Partner
Black and Minority Ethnic Community Partnership (BMECP)
Supervisor
Doris Ndebele, Team Leader, BMECP
