“I go out of my way to give them an extra smile now:” A study of pharmacists who participated in Respond to Prevent, a community pharmacy intervention to accelerate provision of harm reduction materials

Original research
by
Irvin, Adriane N. et al

Release Date

2024

Geography

USA

Language of Resource

English

Full Text Available

No

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

No

Peer Reviewed

Yes

Objective

The objective of this study was to explore pharmacists’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences in providing naloxone, dispensing buprenorphine, and selling nonprescription syringes following participation in the Respond to Prevent (R2P) program.

Findings/Key points

Community pharmacists across the four states identified attitudes, knowledge, and experiences that create barriers to providing care to people with opioid use disorder and who use drugs. R2P approaches and tools were effective at reducing stigma and changing attitudes but were less effective at addressing structural challenges from the pharmacists’ perspective.

Design/methods

Two online asynchronous focus groups were conducted with community-based chain pharmacists across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington who had participated in the R2P program. 

Keywords

About pharmacists
Barriers and enablers
Harm reduction
Illegal drugs
Naloxone
Stigma
Substitution/OAT