(241) Minority Mental Health Matters: Teaching Psychosocial Aspects of Minority Mental Health to Second-Year Pharmacy Students

Objective : To develop a lecture on the impact of depression and anxiety in minority populations for a ‘Psychosocial Aspects of Illness” P2 Pharmacy course. A framework was needed to analyze the emergent social determinants of mental health and then applied to three minority groups: African- Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans, answering two research questions:
WHAT are the social determinants of health unique to these populations?
HOW do those social determinants impact the mental health of those populations?

Methods: A literature review revealed FOUR frameworks useful for analyzing social determinants of health. Synthesizing those frameworks with elements of Pharmacy Practice, SIX QUALITATIVE categories emerged to be used for analyzing psychosocial determinants of health; CULTURE, LIFESTYLE/TREATMENT, ENVIRONMENT, RELATIONSHIOPS, TRANSCENDENCE and SELF. Using these six categories, I searched the Internet for information regarding Mental Health issues among the THREE minority populations.

Results: The CLERTS QUALITATIVE analysis revealed how mental illness impacts minority populations disproportionately. The analysis found that social determinants affected the emotional well-being and quality of life for minority patients both positively and negatively uncovering psychosocial themes of SUICIDE, STIGMA, SHAME and STRESS as dominant narratives of the research.

Conclusions: WHY is this classroom topic important? Psychosocial aspects of illnesses are a burgeoning area of study being integrated into pharmacy curricula. As the profession transforms into a more relational field, pharmacists should be prepared to provide patient care based on the his/her knowledge of the psychosocial aspects of their patients, which expands Patient-centered care into a more comprehensive encounter, increasing positive therapeutic outcomes, improving patient quality of life, increasing treatment adherence developing the cultural competence of the pharmacist, improving pharmacists’ understanding of patient needs and identifying/addressing health disparities within the healthcare system.