Impact of Clinical Pharmacists on Interdisciplinary Mental Health Teams in a Community Setting: A Retrospective Chart Review

Clinical pharmacists play a pivotal role within collaborative care environments, with well-documented contributions on multidisciplinary teams in these settings. Their specific impacts on community mental health and substance use (MHSU) teams remains to be characterized in a publicly funded regional program within Fraser Health. To describe the impact of medication reviews performed by clinical pharmacists and the uptake by prescribers of pharmaceutical interventions recommended by the clinical pharmacists in an ambulatory MHSU setting. This study involved a retrospective chart review of 100 patients referred to Fraser Health Community MHSU Pharmacy Services across 20 communities within the Fraser Health Authority in British Columbia. Clinical pharmacists identified a total of 310 drug therapy problems (DTPs) among the 100 patients. The most common DTPs identified were adverse drug reactions (n = 97, 31%), ineffective drug therapy (n = 68, 22%), unnecessary medications (n = 46, 15%), and the need for additional drug therapy (n = 35, 11%). Prescribers accepted 1 or more of the recommendations made by the clinical pharmacist in 88% (81/92) of the cases with follow-up. More than half (55%, 171/310) of the identified DTPs were resolved within 6 months of the initial pharmacist assessment. In this study, embedding clinical pharmacists within community MHSU care teams enhanced medication safety and therapeutic optimization, while reducing polypharmacy. Future investigation into the benefits for long-term clinical outcomes is warranted.