As a pharmacist, how can you help?

Discussing PrEP easily and openly with customers while maintaining confidentiality is the first way you can help. Informing them about PrEP and how it may be of use for them will help to improve knowledge levels about PrEP in the communities that could benefit from it. Include PrEP in discussions about:

• emergency contraception
• chlamydia diagnosis and treatment
• gonorrhoea treatment
• C-Card discussions and condom supply

Any interaction around a person’s sexual health needs, whether an enquiry or a treatment, is a chance to discuss PrEP and refer people on to sources of further information and sexual health services.

People may be concerned about using PrEP and what they feel it may say about them. We have seen from the ‘PrEP Protects’ campaign that many people link the usage of PrEP to a promiscuous sex life and sex work.

It’s important that we recognise the concerns and barriers that a person may face without becoming barriers ourselves. It’s a good start to recognise and understand your own attitudes to PrEP.

• Do you wonder why people don’t ‘just use condoms’?
• How do you feel about unmarried people having multiple sexual partners?
• What if a customer you know is a married woman asks you about PrEP?
• Is it OK for men to have more than one sexual partner at a time while women should be ‘faithful’ to one person?

It’s very important that we recognise and challenge our own thoughts, feelings and attitudes that could prove to be a barrier to a tool that stops the onward transmission of HIV.
It may help to consider the following four areas when thinking about our feelings and attitudes around issues.

Examining our own values and beliefs in order to recognise any deep-seated prejudices and stereotypes that can create barriers for the people trying to access information and services through us.

Many of us have ‘blind spots’ in our understanding of other people and their lives and experiences, and how they fit with our own beliefs and values. It’s important that we do not negatively impact on the people for whom we are providing services.

Our values and beliefs can impact upon the effectiveness of our work and often show the extent to which we are open to differing views, opinions, experiences and choices.

The stronger and deeper rooted our beliefs and values are, the more likely we are to react emotionally when they are challenged. Having our own beliefs and values is not wrong; it’s when they impact negatively on other people that they become problematic.

The more knowledge we have of people from different backgrounds, cultures and life experiences to us the more likely we are to be open to them and avoid mistakes when we are working with them.

Remaining aware of how culture impacts upon our personal interactions, our problem-solving skills and our ability to ask for and offer help will help us remain mindful during all our interactions with other people.

Someone can have the right attitude, considerable self-awareness and a lot of knowledge around cultural differences, but still not have developed the skills to work effectively across these differences in their interactions. If we haven’t had the chance to learn these skills or to practise them, attitudes and knowledge will not be enough to avoid potential difficulties that may arise in our interactions.

Using the daily interactions with your customers and considering your past relationships with customers will help you to highlight how your knowledge, awareness, attitudes and skills have impacted, and continue to impact, on those interactions.

Some questions that may be useful to consider are:

• How are you sure that the customer was able to ask for and receive what they required?
• How easy is it in your pharmacy for customers to ask to speak with you?
• How do your staff interact with your customers?
• How easy is it for customers to have a confidential talk with you in the pharmacy and receive support, information and a good service?
• Could your own beliefs and attitudes, or those of your staff, be preventing customers from feeling able to ask for help on potentially difficult subjects?
• What other things at your pharmacy could act as a barrier for good (and confidential) communication between you, your staff and your customers? Is the physical space in your pharmacy easy to use? Is the confidential treatment space easy to access? Are customers triaged by your staff before they can speak with you?

Hopefully the information contained here and the knowledge, skills and experience you’ve already gained as a pharmacist will equip you to answer the majority of questions from customers who are potential users of PrEP.

For more information, you can refer customers to our PrEP information.

Printed resources have been developed and will be provided for you to both display and disseminate to people who are interested in finding out more about PrEP.

The printed resources are available in a number of languages.

Being open, and giving clear, precise answers to your customers questions is the best way for those customers to feel heard and not judged. We’re trying to increase knowledge about and uptake of PrEP, so helping to remove any potential barriers to that is important. Think of how you would want to be treated if you were a customer asking for information or a service and use that knowledge to help inform your interactions.

One of the aims of the project is to increase access to PrEP for currently underserved communities, so referring your customers on to your local sexual health services so they can access PrEP is a large part of that. As a pharmacy that provides level one sexual health services you will have experience of referring customers on to your local services. It is also likely that many of your customers are aware of the local sexual health services available to them.

A customer may be apprehensive about accessing the local sexual health service for fear of being seen by a family member or friend and having to answer questions they may find difficult. Many people access services outside their local area for a number of reasons and we have to remain supportive of those choices while still encouraging those that would benefit from PrEP to consider accessing it, at whichever clinic they feel most comfortable using.

If you have a customer who doesn’t want to access local services, they can look for an alternative sexual health clinic in London that they may feel more comfortable using and that may suit them and their needs better than the local service. Information can be found on the PrEPster or Better2Know websites.

PrEP is available at sexual health clinics across London. Before PrEP became available via the NHS many people bought their own supplies online via trusted sources. Now that PrEP is available on prescription via local and pan-London clinics, let’s encourage people to find out more about it, use it, and bring HIV transmissions down to zero.

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