Page 12 - RPA Magazine December 2020

10 WHAT’S TRENDING FROM PAGE 9 for people who are experiencing emergent anxiety or depression, that for people with anxiety it’s very much the racing thoughts, not being able to let those thoughts go – feeling like they need to attend to them and problem- solve, to the point that they’re not able to sleep. They’re having a physical as well as a mental response to those worries and concerns, so it’s impacting on their ability to go to sleep when the baby is sleeping. They’re not feeling able to eat because they have an upset stomach. They’re disengaging from the usual things that they would find comfort or enjoyment in. Sometimes it moves further to unrealistic thinking or obsessive or compulsive thinking, and we know that as a result of Covid-19 there’s been a slight increase in the number of people that we’re supporting via the helpline that have more obsessive- compulsive thoughts. \\\\\\\[For\\\\\\\] people who are experiencing depression – and this is similar for men and women – when somebody’s experiencing signs of depression, it’s very much feeling bogged and unable to move beyond that feeling of being very stuck in a bad and depressed state; feeling that they just want to sleep and often can’t; feeling that they either want to eat too much or not eat at all. And again, lots of thinking patterns that are not helpful, withdrawing from supports, finding opportunities to miss engagements and making excuses to not be involved in those normal supports. How can pharmacy assistants help those who are suffering from perinatal mental health issues? Pharmacy assistants ... are just fundamental to ensuring that people accessing those services and supports are skilled and equipped. We know that they often do the lion’s share of work and I think it’s really important that ... pharmacy assistants know that there are really valuable free resources on the PANDA website. We have amazing tools and resources around what is perinatal mental vulnerability, how can you recognise it. There are tools and resources that people can print off and give to consumers. For those who may be coming in to access your services, there’s a mental health checklist that people can have a look at, or direct people to, if they’re concerned about community members that may be in the pharmacy. We also do a broad range of community and clinical education, and we’d welcome pharmacy assistants and pharmacists more broadly, or anyone who works in a helping profession, to register for those free events. We also have the newly launched PANDA learning hub, which is a portal that allows people to ... access freely all of our pre-recorded training and education that we’ve done for a range of different audiences. People can be doing those at any time and they’re freely available. Moving ahead to next year and beyond, what will the lasting impacts of Covid-19 be on perinatal mental health? The distress that our community across the country is feeling isn’t going to go away. We also know that you can’t take away the fear that a new parent has for the kind of world that they’re bringing their baby into. We’ve also seen a real increase in the number of health professionals reaching out for support in how to support parents during this period. We’ve been really heartened to see a change in profile in the types of health professionals that are engaging with the organisation. We’re ... excited to move into next year with a profile around bringing in the lived experience of clinical providers and community members, which will complement our lived experience of consumers and focusing on those communities where diversity or adversity ... or other vulnerabilities impact on how to access services. We’ll be doing a lot of work to translate our resources into languages for people for whom English is their second language, as well as trying to do more work with our Aboriginal communities to ensure that they know that PANDA is there to support them and that there are other pathways to care. We’ll be looking at more novel ways of supporting our communities. RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • DEC 2020 For more information about PANDA, visit: panda.org.au/