Technology in Pharmacy Business with Scott Carpenter

E67 Pharmacy: An Elixir for Loneliness

February 23, 2023

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In this episode of the Pharmacy View Podcast, host Scott Carpenter, EVBC talks to Jenny Kirschner, Founder of Pharmacy Addressing Loneliness and Social-isolation (PALS) and National Health Services Pharmacist with a major Australian Pharmacy Group. With over 20 years of experience in the healthcare and pharmacy sector, Jenny brings much-needed insight into the overarching problem that loneliness has become, especially in the post Pandemic world, and talks about PALS, the first international network of individuals and organizations across the pharmacy industry that are passionate about addressing loneliness and social isolation to further improve the health outcomes of their patients and the wider community.

Jenny has had a colorful career in Pharmacy, having started off in Retail Pharmacy and then moving on to working in Hospital Pharmacy and as a Clinical Pharmacist. Jenny has also worked as a health coach for lifestyle modification programs and is also a National Health Services Pharmacist delivering impactful and innovative health programs. All of this, in addition to being the founder of PALS. Jenny strongly believes that as Pharmacists, there is a need to develop skills to engage with people in a way that they are understood and helped, and motivated to change.

Pharmacy View Podcast · Ep 67 Jenny Kirschner

If working across various roles in Pharmaceutical Industry wasn’t enough, Jenny also ventured into selling raw organic chocolates and organizing day dance parties for mothers. Jenny says that bringing people together in various ways has helped emphasize the importance of how social connections can help improve people’s health and well-being.

Having researched the topic of loneliness for over a decade with an interest that really stemmed from Jenny’s personal experience, and then having lived through the Covid pandemic, they realized that there wasn’t enough understanding of what impact loneliness could have on the well-being of individuals and communities. What they realized was that Pharmacies, be it Hospital Pharmacies or Community Pharmacies, are critical access points to patients and it is Pharmacists’ professional responsibility to start to upskill themselves and learn about the signs of loneliness so they can start to recognize it in our patients and respond. So, Jenny formed PALS to:

Make the whole Pharmacy Industry understand what loneliness is
Ensure that Pharmacists understand that this is their responsibility as part of being a lifestyle Pharmacist

Backed by research, Jenny says how loneliness can increase the risk of premature deaths by 26% and how a third of Australians report suffering from loneliness. In fact, Vivek Murthy compares loneliness to the Opioid Epidemic and the Obesity Crisis in the US. Jenny says that we aren’t talking about loneliness enough and that is exactly the problem PALS looks forward to solving.

Further, Jenny adds how loneliness doesn’t just affect the elderly and that there is a loneliness to be experienced even in the workplace. Jenny hopes that PALS can serve as an educational tool in the first instance to make people look at the evidence and research to understand what loneliness is and start to embed screening tools and get referral pathways to different initiatives. When talking about technology, Jenny highlights the evolving nature of technology and how with that will change the ways in which people connect with one another.

Note: Loneliness is a crisis and if you want to understand what it is, how it will impact your well-being, or simply want to help someone who is lonely, connect with Jenny. (The links are provided at the end of the show notes)

Topics Covered

Different roles within the industry
Need to connect people for their well-being
Understanding loneliness and responding to the needs of the patients
How PALS came into being
Prevalence of workplace loneliness
Mental health is as important as medical health
Use of technology

Key Quotes (Time Stamps)

“So that was really terrific—to have a bit of retail experience, to have clinical experience, which I really love, and then also to do project management and change management in a large hospital, getting consensus around how anti-biotics would be used. From that place, I actually really felt that it is important that we develop skills as Pharmacists to engage with people in a way that we understand them and help them and motivate them to change.” (2:57 – 3:27)

“I went and did some Health Coach training. Pharmacists might have heard of Health Coaching. These are skills to be able to do what we call Motivational Interviewing and engage with people and understand their ‘why’. And when you understand their why, you can then go and help them, motivate them to change or help them structure some plans, strategies, and goals to change.” (3:28 – 3:50)

“So, everything, that you can see, along the way, whether it is raw organic chocolate to Health Coaching to dance parties, is around health and connecting individuals.” (5:34 – 5:45)

“There’s such a wave of technology and I really feel like Pharmacy needs to be open and upskill themselves to be a part of that.” (5:59 – 6:11)

“I’ve been following the topic of loneliness for over a decade with an interest that really stems from my own personal experiences.” (8:47 – 8:54)

“There is evidence to show that loneliness can increase the risk of premature deaths by 26%. Now, that’s the same kind of risk that we have with obesity. We’ve got an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, of stroke, increase in depression—there’s a whole stream of effects that loneliness has that you just wouldn’t kind of think about unless you’ve looked into it because we are not actually discussing it enough.” (10:50 – 11:20)

“In, Australia, we are looking at a third of population, 33-36% of the Australian population saying that they are experiencing loneliness. Think about that. That’s larger than the number of people suffering from Diabetes in Australia.” (12:41 – 12:53)

“We all know that patients in Community Pharmacies come in just for a chat. They spread out getting their repeat prescription because they are coming in to connect.” (13:01 – 13:11)

“In a Community Pharmacy setting, as an example, we are seeing patients more than their GP. We are seeing patients in their everyday lives, not always in their true setting; maybe they are coming in when they are well. And that gives this really unique opportunity to, as we do, engage and know people really well.” (13:41 – 14:02)

“My goal and the intention for PALS, is to educate the Pharmacy industry, to have Pharmacists screening. There are validated screening tools for loneliness; and this could be added to medication reviews, meds-checks, the HMR Pharmacists, the embedded care Pharmacists, the Hospital Pharmacists on discharge—they could all be having easy four-question validated screening tools, and then being able to refer patients In.” (14:03 – 14:29)

“Staying with PALS, what I think we are really trying to do is: make sure we educate the Pharmacists, help everyone understand that this is our responsibility as part of lifestyle counseling to be a holistic-personalized care and be talking about social health with patients.” (14:36 – 14:52)

“There is research showing that loneliness can affect medication adherence which when you think about it makes sense. When somebody doesn’t have the right social support, they might not be able to get to the Pharmacy to get medication and pick it up. Or they might not be motivated to take it.” (17:48 – 18:04)

“Loneliness doesn’t just affect the elderly. It can affect everybody, every age. In fact, some of the higher risk age groups include the 18-25-year-olds.” (18:43 – 18:56)

“I hope that PALS really serves as an educational tool in the first instance to make people kind of wake up and look at the evidence and research to understand what loneliness is and as I said, from there, we can start to embed screening tools into meds-checks, we can get referral pathways to different initiatives, and there’s a lot that we can do. But I do think that we need to be aware of it to start with.” (22:24 – 22:50)

“You make a good point about technology and PALS and loneliness. There are so many interesting things coming out as potential solutions or potential ways to address loneliness. Things including AI, including Robotics and it is a really interesting space because in many ways technology and the pace of life has eroded a lot of connections and in some ways, there are tools that are helping people connect.” (28:40 – 29:10)

Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)

Jenny’s colorful career in Pharmacy (1:12 – 4:06)
Connect individuals for their well-being and health (4:07 – 5:45)
How PALS came into being (8:47 – 14:52)
The entire Pharmaceutical Industry needs to come together to tackle loneliness (17:32 – 19:02)
And then there’s workplace loneliness (20:15 – 20:47)
Mental health is as important as medical health (23:40 – 25:10)
How connectedness will change with the evolution of technology (27:06 – 31:15)