Perceived roles and barriers in caring for the people who are homeless: a survey of UK community pharmacists

摘要

Background Community pharmacists can be an accessible source for advice and support for the people who are homeless given their utilisation of a variety of currently available services such as dispensing of medicines, drugs and alcohol services Objective To determine community pharmacists' training, experiences and behavioural determinants in counselling am management of homeless population. Setting UK community pharmacies. Method A questionnaire based on literature am theoretical domains framework was mailed to randomly sampled community phaimacies in England and Scotland (n — 2000) Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Main outcome measures Pharmacists' perspectives, pharma cists' training, pharmacists' experiences and behavioural determinants. Results A total of 321 responses (RR 16.1%) wer< received. Respondents indicated lack of knowledge, skills, intentions as well as contextual factors such as lack of guideline: impacted on their counselling and management of homeless patients. Less than a third (n= 101, 32.2%) indicated that the;; knew where to refer a homeless patient for social support. Broaching the subject of homelessness was outside their comfor zone (n= 139,44.3%). Only four (1.2%) respondents could correctly answer all knowledge assessment questions. Conclusion, Community pharmacist identified lack of education, training opportunities and guidelines in counselling and managemen of homeless patients. Targeting community pharmacists' knowledge, skills and intention to provide care to the homeles: patients may enable addressing health inequality through community pharmacy.