Community Health Workers' and Pharmacists' Perspectives of a CHW-Pharmacist Collaboration Model to Support Medication...

Interprofessional collaboration is key in supporting patient medication adherence. Community health workers (CHWs) can bridge the gap between community and health services and can collaborate with pharmacists to support medication adherence. A collaborative CHW-pharmacist practice model was developed in the United States of America (USA), where CHWs and pharmacists collaborate to develop an action plan to address medication adherence barriers, and provide follow-up with patients. The present study aimed to investigate (1) opinions of pharmacists and CHWs working in Australia and New Zealand about this model, and (2) how the model could be implemented in their respective country.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with CHWs and pharmacists working in Australia or New Zealand. Questions addressed the CHWs' and pharmacists' perspectives on the CHW-pharmacist collaborative practice model. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using a thematically inductive process.

Twenty-nine participants (16 pharmacists and 13 CHWs) were interviewed, 19 worked in Australia and 10 in New Zealand. Participants' opinions about the model were categorised into three themes: (1) perceptions of the model, (2) challenges and (3) facilitators to the implementation of the model. Most participants recognised the model's potential to support medication adherence and appreciated the role of CHWs in bridging the cultural gap with patients. Reported challenges to model implementation included concern about the overlap of services with existing pharmacy services, cultural considerations, CHWs' limited clinical training, need for resources and sharing information with the healthcare team members. Facilitators involved clarification of roles, training for CHWs, and fostering collaboration with the other members of the healthcare team.

While the CHW-pharmacist collaborative practice model was seen as valuable to support medication adherence in Australia and New Zealand, challenges were highlighted to be considered before implementation. Clear definition of roles and guidelines on collaborative practices to support medication adherence may facilitate the effective implementation of the model.

Patients, service users, care-givers, people with lived experience or members of the public were not involved in the study design or conduct of study, analysis or interpretation of the data or in preparation of the manuscript.