Positioning psychiatric pharmacists to improve mental health care

Psychiatric pharmacy continues to grow and look to the future with a focus on helping individuals recover from mental health and substance use disorders. The American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP) considers Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP) the gold standard credential that all psychiatric pharmacists should attain to demonstrate specialized knowledge and expertise in psychiatry. BCPPs are part of collaborative interprofessional teams and practice in hospitals, clinics, and diverse health systems. Two out of 3 BCPPs practicing in clinics have prescriptive authority. BCPPs improve access, safety, medication adherence, and therapeutic outcomes. Every person with a mental health and substance use disorder should have access to a BCPP providing comprehensive medication management (CMM) and psychotropic stewardship aimed at improving population health. BCPPs are in demand owing to their expertise. AAPP envisions growth and expansion of the BCPP role in many areas including coordinating psychiatric transitions of care and telehealth services, managing long-acting injectable medication clinics, providing pharmacogenomic consultation, conducting clozapine and lithium monitoring, managing medications for substance use disorders, leading medication groups, CNS drug development, research, and provider education. To prepare the workforce, colleges and schools of pharmacy should hire BCPPs for optimal curriculum development, and each student pharmacist should have an opportunity to develop a therapeutic alliance with a person recovering from psychiatric illness. Postgraduate year (PGY) 1 residencies should offer learning experiences in psychiatric pharmacy to prepare residents to enter an expanded number of PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residencies, ultimately earning their BCPP and being well positioned to improve mental health care.