Developing dementia-friendly pharmacies in Austria: a health promotion approach

Abstract

The need for integrated, accessible and person-centred care for people with dementia to foster quality of life and facilitate life in the community has been voiced by health policy. Pharmacies have the potential to provide easily accessible information and support for people with dementia, caregivers and the public. The ‘Dementia-friendly Pharmacy’ programme aimed at re-orienting community pharmacy in Austria, focusing on stronger inclusion of professional counselling into core services. It followed principles of health promotion and person-centred care, aiming at empowering all actors involved, and at fostering quality of life. Methodologically, the programme was based on participatory health research, thus involving all relevant actors and consolidating their perspectives on issues related to dementia care. In the course of the programme, a workshop series covering topics relevant for dementia care in community pharmacy, as well as prototypes for small-scale projects were developed, and measures were taken for securing sustainability. Findings related to programme development and implementation encompass pharmacy staff’s motivation to participate in the programme, counselling knowledge and skills development, experience with building community partnerships and cross-organizational development and sustainability. Furthermore, effectiveness of the programme has been established. These findings are discussed against the background of re-orienting pharmacies.

Person-centred integrated care with a health promotion/public health approach: a rapid review

“…Eight papers are included in this rapid review with a variety of methodological approaches utilised; two qualitative studies (Lilleheile et al , 2020; Shrivastava et al , 2019) and six mixed method studies (Grace et al , 2019; Lo et al , 2018; Palmer et al , 2019; Plunger et al ., 2019; Quigley et al , 2019; Stoop et al , 2020).…”

“…The papers are from a number of different geographical regions, including Austria (Plunger et al ., 2019); Australia (Quigley et al , 2019; Lo et al , 2018; Grace et al , 2019); Austria, Estonia, Germany, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (Stoop et al , 2020); Canada (Shrivastava et al , 2019); Norway (Lilleheile et al , 2020); Spain, Lithuania and Italy (Palmer et al , 2019).…”

Pharmacists’ Knowledge of Factors Associated with Dementia: The A-to-Z Dementia Knowledge List

“…Finally, we used our results to elaborate supporting educational material, including advertising posters and short explainer videos, with a view to improving community pharmacists’ knowledge of dementia and its associated factors. Pharmacies are usually the first point of contact in the healthcare system, and they have the potential to provide information and life-sustaining support for patients [ 58 ]. Our material could also be useful to aid and promote the role community pharmacists already play in health education.…”

„Wenn es nicht schlimmer wird, kann ich damit leben“ Bedürfnisse und Erfahrungen pflegender Angehöriger von Menschen mit Demenz in Österreich

“…Die hier präsentierte Studie stellt einen Teil der Bedürfniserhebung dar, die als Grundlage für die Interventionsentwicklung des partizipativen Forschungsprojekts diente. Ergebnisse zu den Apotheken werden an anderer Stelle präsentiert [16].…”