What have you done for your patients with M.E.?

Previously, I’ve asked people with M.E. Please let me know how your pharmacy helps. So, as you’ve come to the intersection of M.E. patient and pharmacist, I thought I’d switch it! If you’re a pharmacy professional, what have you done for your patients with M.E.?

I’m working with a national M.E. charity, Action for M.E., as Volunteer Pharmacist, providing information about pharmacy services, writing health and pharmacy-related articles, and putting together a resource for pharmacy professionals about M.E. For now, to read more about M.E., please visit Action for M.E.’s Get Informed pages. If you’d like to leave suggestions for the resource for pharmacists, you can leave me a comment on the blog post What would pharmacy professionals like to see in a resource about M.E.? We’re also looking for funding ideas for the project, so please let me know if you have any by contacting me.

So do you even have any patients with M.E.? The answer to that question is yes, you probably do, even if you’re not aware of it! Although there is no official record of M.E. cases, it’s estimated that there are approximately 250,000 adults and children with the illness in the UK[1]. Even if a patient isn’t on any medication for M.E. symptom management, you might come across someone with M.E., perhaps when you are carrying out MURs and the NMS. If you’re a person with M.E. wondering what those things stand for, I have an article about pharmacy services coming up!

So those of you that have come across patients with M.E., have you got any examples of the pharmaceutical care you have given, or ways that your pharmacy team have helped a patient with M.E. in any way? Please leave a comment below or contact me and share this article so that I can also collect some examples from other pharmacists.

The deadline for submitting your suggestions is 26 October 2015. Although the comment sections on the blog posts will remain open after this date, from that point onwards we will be moving onto the next stage of developing the resource.

References

1 Pheby D. How common is M.E.? Action forM.E. InterAction 2008 Winter;66(12). http://www.actionforme.org.uk/get-informed/publications/interaction-magazine/read-selected-ia-articles/what-is-me/how-common-is-me.htm (accessed 30 Jun 2015).