Welcome to the UK Psychiatric Pharmacy Group website
The UKPPG exists to ensure best treatment with medicines for people with mental health needs and their carers. This is being achieved by developing educational facilities and accreditation for pharmacists, providing support through local and national resources and providing a network of support for psychiatric pharmacists. Promoting the profile of the speciality of psychiatric pharmacy is also an essential feature of the groups work. This site is aimed at psychiatric pharmacists to help and support them in improving pharmaceutical care for people with mental health needs.
The UKPPG believes that:
- Appropriate drug therapy helps treat mental health problems, minimises relapse and reduces suicide
- Mental health pharmacists' aim is the safety of patients, by making sure that people who need drugs get them and take them at the optimum dose, and those that don't need drugs, don't get them
- All mental health service users should have the support of, and access to, independent education and advice about drugs, preferably from a specialist mental health pharmacist.
The UKPPG receives many queries from members of the general public, from health professionals and journalists on matters related to pre-clinical and clinical psychopharmacology. Some of these queries may be passed on to the membership, for example when they are raised by researchers and health professionals and relate to general aspects of behavioural or clinical psychopharmacology: the opinions given will be those of the individual member, and cannot be regarded as the opinion of the UKPPG. Queries relating to individual cases (such as concerns regarding patient management) cannot be addressed by the UKPPG. Patients who are concerned about their treatment are advised to discuss their worries with their general practitioner, or with others who may be involved in their care. Discussions with UKPPG Members are necessarily limited by accepted standards of confidentiality, ethics and professional practice.