Medway School of Pharmacy Student Wins National Project Award
December 2011
Eleanor Bevan, who graduated from the Medway School of Pharmacy in July 2011, has been awarded the College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP) Undergraduate Bursary Award for 2011. This U.K. award is made by the CMHP for undergraduate projects in the practice of mental health pharmacy.
Eleanor’s project, supervised by Mr Stuart Gill-Banham, entitled “Community Pharmacists’ Response and Recognition to Symptoms of Depression”, surveyed community pharmacists working in the West Midlands. It showed the ability of pharmacists to recognise key depression symptoms and what their subsequent actions would be. A high proportion of those surveyed were able to recognise at least one symptom of depression, but few could recognise all three key symptoms. Most pharmacists were willing to refer a patient with symptoms of undiagnosed depression to their GP for further assessment. Encouragingly nearly half of those surveyed had previously referred a patient to their GP because depressive symptoms were evident. As up to a quarter of people may suffer from depression at some point in their life recognising and referring patients with potentially undiagnosed depression could be a significant role for community pharmacists.
The CMHP is the foremost organisation within the United Kingdom for the advancement of education and research in the practice of mental health pharmacy. The Undergraduate Bursary award is made annually for a project completed during the past year. As the winner of this year’s award Eleanor receives funding to attend the CMHP Psychiatric Pharmacy Conference, where she will present her project, along with two years associate membership of the group.
