UK Pharmacy Students’ Opinions on Mental Health Conditions

Objective. To determine future pharmacists’ opinions on mental health conditions and investigate the influence of gender. Methods. Final-year Master of Pharmacy students at Queen’s University Belfast completed a paper-based questionnaire. Section A of the questionnaire was adapted from a United Kingdom public opinion questionnaire on mental health. Section B gathered non-identifiable demographic data. Descriptive statistics were undertaken. Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square tests were used for gender comparisons. Results. An 89% (97/109) response rate was obtained. Most survey respondents considered that pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures were beneficial in the management of mental health conditions (89% and 96%, respectively) and that people with mental illness had the same rights to jobs as anyone else (82%). However, only 57% of the respondents felt confident discussing mental health issues with patients and 36% deemed university training to be satisfactory. Males were more likely than females to “agree strongly” or “agree slightly” that they would not want to live next door to someone who has been mentally ill. Conclusion. While some positive opinions were evident, more work is needed to prepare future pharmacists for roles within mental health care teams.