CPF Communications

NCPA Innovation Center Announces Mental Health First Aid Training Scholarship Winners 
Clark Bishop, PharmD, co-owner of Hutton Pharmacy in Blackwell, Okla.; Talia Puzantian, PharmD, BCPP, Associate Professor at the Keck Graduate Institute School of Pharmacy in Claremont, Calif.; and Thomas Smith, PharmD, BCPP, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Manchester University in Fort Wayne, Ind. were awarded the scholarships as part of a larger NCPA Innovation Center grant from the Community Pharmacy Foundation (CPF). Drs. Bishop, Puzantian, and Smith will complete the Mental Health First Aid instructor training this fall and have committed to training community pharmacists and their teams in mental health first aid.

"The NCPA Innovation Center is dedicated to helping accelerate the community pharmacist's role in the health care team and their training in mental health first aid is a great example of this trend," said NCPA Innovation Center board member Tripp Logan, PharmD, co-owner of L&S Pharmacy in Charleston, Mo. "I recently sent two of my pharmacists and four technicians to Mental Health First Aid training and was impressed with their reactions, especially those of the technicians. The training will be even more impactful for pharmacy teams when taught by pharmacists using pharmacy-specific cases."

Mental Health First Aid is an eight-hour live education program that teaches attendees how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and substance use disorders. As pharmacy team members are often on the front line of patient care, they interact with patients who face these disorders on a regular basis, but may be underprepared to effectively care for them. The Mental Health First Aid education program utilizes case examples and role play to emphasize how the training can be used in real life.

A second component of the CPF project provided funding to develop pharmacy-specific cases for the training. These cases will be used during Mental Health First Aid training led by these scholarship award winners as well as any other certified Mental Health First Aid instructor. Additional information will be available on both the NCPA and CPF websites in the future.

ISMP Tool Helps Pharmacies Assess Practices to Improve Medication Safety

The updated 2017 ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment^® for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy is designed to heighten awareness of the distinguishing characteristics of safe pharmacy systems.

The self assessment is divided into ten key elements that most significantly influence safe medication use. Each element is defined by one or more core characteristics of a safe pharmacy system that further define a safe medication use system. Each core characteristic contains individual self-assessment items to help pharmacies evaluate their success with achieving each core characteristic.

The 2017 ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment® for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy and its components are copyrighted by ISMP and may not be used in whole or in part for any other purpose or by any other entity except for self assessment of medication systems by pharmacies as part of their ongoing quality improvement activities.
 

Congratulations Grantees!

John "Jake" Galdo, PharmD, BCPS, CGP | Samford University, Alabama
 
Depression Screening in Pharmacies Impact - view a recently posted 360 degree video and hear from grantee Jake Galdo and independent community pharmacist Robert Mills. They share an impact story about depression screening for a patient who had suicidal thoughts that were undetectable by appearances or conversations, but were identified through screening. 

CPF Project Title: 

Impact of Depression Screenings in Community Pharmacies

Grant Details Page | Video

Brian Isetts, RPh, PhD, BCPS | University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy

The research team of Drs. Olson, Kondic, Schommer and Isetts published the companion article in 'INNOVATIONS in pharmacy' on July 12, 2017 to complete the CPF Program Evaluation project.  The article is titled 'Comparing the Research Contributions of Community Pharmacy Foundation Funding on Practice Innovation Between Non-Academics and Academics.' 

This second article characterized both grant contributions and professional impact of non-academic principal investigator grants whereas the first article focused only on academician primary investigators.  In addition to descriptive grant statistics, this second article included grant activities and results as it related to the Pharmacy Practice Activity Classifications (PPAC - Overview | Classification List).  The PPAC organizes pharmacists’ activities into 14 classes within four domains. The four domains are Dispensing Medications and Devices, Ensuring Appropriate Therapy and Outcomes, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Health Systems Management.  

In summary, CPF funding contributed new knowledge and resources for expanding and enhancing practice innovations as shown by quantitative (PPAC & Coordinated Use of Medications) and qualitative (primary investigator) impact measures. Similarities between academic and non-academic groups suggest that the CPF has established a funding niche with unique diversity of practice innovation opportunities. These findings will enhance CPF’s continuous quality improvement efforts, especially as a priority activity of the CPF 15 Years of Grant Funding Anniversary.   It can also guide future grant applicants to assess research gaps in the medication use process and develop sustainable, transferable, and replicable patient-care innovations in community pharmacy practice.

CPF Project Title: 

CPF Program Evaluation Project

Grant Details Page | Publication