Perinatal Women’s Views of Pharmacist-Delivered Perinatal Depression Screening: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Internationally, 20% of women experience perinatal depression (PND). Healthcare providers including general practitioners and midwives are critical in providing PND screening and support; however, the current workforce is unable to meet growing demands for PND care. As accessible and trusted primary healthcare professionals, pharmacists could provide PND care to complement existing services, thereby contributing to early detection and intervention. This study aimed to explore perinatal women’s views of community pharmacist-delivered PND screening and care, with a focus on their attitudes towards and acceptability of PND screening implementation in community pharmacy. Semi-structured interviews with women (n = 41) were undertaken, whereby interview data were transcribed verbatim and then inductively and thematically analysed. Five overarching themes emerged; “patient experience with existing PND support and screening services”; “familiarity with pharmacists’ roles”; “pharmacist visibility in PND screening care”; “patient—pharmacist relationships” and “factors influencing service accessibility”. Themes and subthemes were mapped to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Findings highlight participants’ generally positive attitudes towards community pharmacist-delivered PND screening and care, and the potential acceptability of such services provided pharmacists are trained and referral pathways are established. Addressing perceived barriers and facilitators would allow community pharmacist-delivered PND screening and care to support existing PND care models.

Perinatal depression screening in community pharmacy: Exploring pharmacists’ roles, training and resource needs using content analysis

“…Research on healthcare professionals’ perspectives on pharmacist-delivered screening is limited; however, available research demonstrates that generally other healthcare professionals are accepting of pharmacist-delivered screening for a range of medical conditions and risk factors [ 9 ]. Furthermore, perinatal women have also indicated that pharmacist-delivered PND screening and care could be beneficial [ 16 ]. There has been a shift to community-based primary care for many mental illnesses, resulting in many services and supports now being available through community pharmacies, including clozapine dispensing [ 24 ].…”

“…There is evidence to suggest that pharmacists are willing to take on roles in perinatal mental healthcare [ 13 ], with measurement instruments exploring pharmacists’ knowledge and attitudes in this area having been developed [ 14 , 15 ]. Recent evidence from interviews with perinatal women in Australia demonstrates that they are also generally accepting of pharmacists’ roles in this area if pharmacists had appropriate training [ 16 ]. Examining pharmacists’ perspectives of PND screening, specifically, is necessary to inform the development of such a service in an acceptable manner [ 6 ].…”