Attitudes of pharmacists toward mental illness and providing pharmaceutical care to the mentally ill

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the attitudes of pharmacists toward mental illness. OBJECTIVE: To study the attitudes of Alabama pharmacists toward both mental illness and the providing of pharmaceutical care to mentally ill patients. METHODS: The survey used in this project was composed of 3 sections. Section 1 collected demographic information, section 2 asked 11 Likert-type questions concerning attitudes toward mental illness, and section 3 asked about attitudes toward providing pharmaceutical care to mentally ill patients. The surveys were distributed to pharmacists attending 3 school-sponsored continuing education programs. RESULTS: One hundred eighty-seven pharmacists participated in the survey. The vast majority (> 90%) of participants disagreed or strongly disagreed with statements that mentally ill patients are easily recognizable, unintelligent, and do not care how they look. Approximately 30-50% of participants expressed being "more" or "much more" confident, comfortable, interested, and likely to perform pharmaceutical care activities for mentally ill patients relative to medically ill patients, while only approximately 5-20% of participants expressed being "less" or "much less" so. Several demographic factors, including gender, age, and years in practice, were associated with attitudes toward providing pharmaceutical care to mentally ill patients. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacists expressed generally positive attitudes toward both mental illness and the providing of pharmaceutical care to mentally ill patients.