Increasing access to care using clinical pharmacy specialist providers in outpatient mental health: Successful practice integration within the Department of Veterans Affairs

Background: To highlight the role and impact of the mental health (MH) clinical pharmacist provider in outpatient MH through successful practice integration into team-based care. Objective: The MH clinical pharmacy specialist (CPS) provider serves in many key roles to improve patient-centered care and medication outcomes by supporting the needs of the MH team, patients, and caregivers in areas of comprehensive medication management. MH CPS providers are integrated as MH providers in general and specialty MH clinics, behavioral health clinics embedded in primary care, residential rehabilitation facilities, specialty MH programs, and in inpatient MH units to improve access, quality, and safety. Practice description: There is a shortage of psychiatrists across the United States, which affects the ability to provide MH care to patients. Practice innovation: There is a need to transform the MH team to include clinicians focused on providing services to the growing population with MH conditions; hence, the expertise of the MH CPS is an asset to increase access to comprehensive medication management services. Evaluation: The MH CPS provider serves patients with a variety of MH conditions, managing medication-related adverse events, performing ongoing and acute medication monitoring, and collaborating with other health care providers for management of new diagnoses. Results: The MH CPS provider improves access to care, clinical outcomes, and safety when deployed as direct patient care providers on Veterans Affairs (VA) interprofessional care teams. VA MH clinical pharmacy practice continues to demonstrate what the MH CPS provider, practicing at the top of their license, can achieve as a core member in MH team-based care. Conclusion: These foundational concepts can be applied to further expand MH clinical pharmacy practice into non-VA settings through the use collaborative practice agreements and integration into interprofessional care teams, providing access to patients in need of MH care. (C) 2020 American Pharmacists Association (R). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.