Toolkit

Engaging with Pharmacies

Resource title: Engaging with Pharmacies: A Toolkit for Young Carer Services
Published: 2016    Author: Charlotte Elmitt, Young Carers and Young Adult Carers Team Leader, Salford Carers Centre, part of the Gaddum Centre, a Manchester based Health and Social Care charity and Daniel Phelps, Project and Development Manager, Carers Trust

Pharmacies are visited by about 1.6 million people every day in England so they are ideally positioned to identify carers of all ages including young carers. They can therefore play a key role in the early initiation of assessment and support which can be life changing. This toolkit is aimed at young carer services to support them to work collaboratively with pharmacies. It draws on the Young Carers Pharmacy Project that took place between 2014 and 2016. 

Key points

  • Undertake a local consultation exercise to understand the experience of young carers and their families of using pharmacies in your local area.
  • Contact your Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) as a first point of contact. LPCs represent all NHS pharmacy contractors in a defined locality. You can find your LPC at www.lpc-online.org.uk. Please note, however, that LPCs are not always defined along administrative boundaries and so pharmacies in your service’s area may fall into more than one LPC.
  • If you are part of a stand-alone young carer service, consider working collaboratively with a local adult carer service.
  • Use UK wide campaigning and awareness days such as Young Carers Awareness Day, Carers Week or Carers Rights Day to have a stall or an information board within pharmacies.

About the resource

This toolkit sets out how young carer services can support pharmacies to better identify and support young carers (and families). Although pharmacies themselves should be able to implement some of the ideas within the toolkit, it is intended that they are supported to do this by a local carers service.

To facilitate implementation, recommendations in the toolkit are set out in the form of a self-evaluation checklist.

See also:

  • The Young Carers Pharmacy Project Evaluation Report.
  • The Young Carers Pharmacy Project Learning Report