Under the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement Research and Development Program, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia appointed HMA to undertake a series of interventions to examine ways in which community pharmacies could enhance their role in supporting people with a mental illness. The three interventions were:
The interventions were applied in the geographic areas covered by five Divisions of General Practice in Victoria and South Australia that agreed to participate in the pilot. The Divisions of General Practice networks were asked to assist HMA to recruit 30 participating pharmacies (6 * 5) and up to 10 control pharmacies. The pilot requested that participating pharmacists work collaboratively with GPs and with the local public area mental health services. Participating pharmacies were required to implement all three of the interventions and were paid incentives for their participation and collection of evaluation data.
The project commenced in August 2008 and was completed in June 2010