Wellness Toolkit
Resources to support pharmacy professionals.
In this toolkit you will find resources developed or complied by CPhA and the Pharmacy Wellness Task Force to support the mental health and wellness of pharmacy professionals. This is a dynamic toolkit and new resources will be added regularly.
Contents
Rx4Wellness: Navigating Well-being in Pharmacy
In this new podcast series, we speak with pharmacists across the country about mental health and wellness in pharmacy. From mental health strategies and stress management techniques to practical advice on maintaining a healthy work-life balance, building resilience, burnout prevention and fostering a positive mindset, pharmacists nationwide will share valuable insights to empower you both personally and professionally.
No tolerance for aggressive behavior posters
According to our 2023 mental health survey, 37% of working pharmacy professionals experience abuse or harassment from patients at least weekly and 19% report that it happens daily. CPhA has created 2 printable posters that you can display in your pharmacy as a visual reminder that aggressive behaviour is not tolerated and that your pharmacy team is here to help.
English Poster 1
(colour | black & white)
English Poster 2
(colour | black & white)
Resource Round-up: Mental Health
CPhA’s Resource Round-up series gathers resources and practice tools on important health topics to help you in your practice. Our Mental Health edition includes a number of helpful resources from CPhA and others.
Resources from the Health Worker Burnout Toolkit
The Canadian Health Workforce Network has partnered with health professional and leadership organizations, including CPhA, to promote the Health Worker Burnout Toolkit, an extensive catalogue of 140 wellness interventions.
CPhA's Pharmacy Wellness Task Force is curating a selection of these evidence-based resources to support wellness within the pharmacy profession.
Below you will find the first two curated selections of resources for pharmacy professionals and pharmacy teams. This selection will be expanded to include resources relevant to organizations and system leadership.
- Resources for individuals: Resources that can be explored by pharmacy professionals working in any practice setting to design their own approach for responding to their daily realities of professional and personal life.
- Resources for pharmacy teams: Resources that can be explored by pharmacy teams to improve team dynamics, practice environments or other challenges to wellbeing.
Resources for individuals
Pharmacy professionals working in any practice setting can sample the resources listed here to design their own approach for responding to their daily realities of professional and personal life. These resources are intended to be helpful but depending on your capacity for information, could also overwhelm. Please consider the best time and place to engage in exploration and limit your exploration to what serves you best.
Instilling calm and maintaining mental well-being
Pause, Reset and Nourish Toolkit (PRN)
Managing stress and maintaining mental well-being
Psychosocial Factors: Workload Management
Managing your workload
Mental Health at Work: Being anti-racist in the workplace
Addressing discrimination and racism in the workplace
Mindfulness sessions for HCPs
Pause 4 Providers
Helps with: Instilling calm and maintaining mental well-being
Audience: Pharmacy professionals in any practice setting
This small library of short mindfulness videos may be just the thing to help you make it through the day or to rest your mind. These sessions are led by health professionals for health professionals. The live sessions have been discontinued so if this type of activity is of interest, try finding a local in-person or virtual mindfulness/meditation group to continue your own mindfulness practice.
Pause, Reset and Nourish Toolkit (PRN)
Hamilton Health Sciences
Helps with: Managing stress and maintaining mental well-being
Audience: Pharmacy professionals in any practice setting
The Pause, Reset and Nourish Toolkit was developed as one part in a series of programs designed by the Hamilton Health Sciences to support their staff during and beyond the pandemic. The toolkit contains a myriad of multimedia, instructions and strategies that pharmacy professionals may find effective in maintaining their mental health.
Psychosocial Factors: Workload Management
Mental Health Commission of Canada
Helps with: Managing your workload
Audience: Pharmacy professionals in any practice setting
This short video is one of about a dozen more on topics relating to psychological health and safety in the workplace courtesy of the Mental Health Commission of Canada's video series 13 Factors: Addressing Mental Health in the Workplace. The video about workload management is particularly relevant for community pharmacists.
Mental Health at Work: Being anti-racist in the workplace
Mental Health at Work Leadership Council (UK)
Helps with: Addressing discrimination and racism in the workplace
Audience: Pharmacy professionals in any practice setting
This toolkit provides guidance on how to address discrimination and racism in the workplace. The toolkit has various resources to choose from including videos, articles, and playlists.
Resources for pharmacy teams
Teams with knowledge, skills and attitudes about wellness and psychological safety can cultivate an enjoyable and collaborative work environment. Would your team consider formalising the pursuit of wellness and psychologic safety? Placing a recurring item on your team's regularly scheduled meeting agenda, gaining team members’ consensus on direction and experimenting with some of the resources from within this section could improve team dynamics, practice environment or address other challenges to wellbeing. There is evidence to suggest having team members who 'have your back' is key to a positive work experience. Teams that successfully undertake changes to achieve engagement and wellbeing also have been shown to provide quality patient care.
#2022 Healthcare Workforce Rescue Package
Building resiliency and protecting the well-being of your team
Sample Script for Approaching Distressed Pharmacy Professionals
Approaching a team member who seems distressed
Returning to the Workplace-Resiliency Training for Managers
Addressing employee and team well-being and resiliency
#2022 Healthcare Workforce Rescue Package
ALL IN: WellBeing First for Healthcare
Helps with: Building resiliency and protecting the well-being of your team
Audience: Managers and people leaders
This American website includes resources such as "Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff" – a concept pharmacy teams will find particularly relevant given the intensity of technology usage in pharmacies. Further ideas, resources and stories related to mental health and well-being from the front lines of US healthcare are shared in this “Rescue Package.”
How to use it: Consider prioritizing the 'stupid stuff' for elimination or adjustment and determine the facilitators and barriers for achievement. Remember, a few changes is still progress! Share with the team any stories and ideas that particularly resonate with you to build resiliency and promote well-being.
Sample Script for Approaching Distressed Pharmacy Professionals
Adapted from the American Medical Association’s Sample Script for Approaching a Distressed Physician
Helps with: Approaching a team member who seems distressed
Audience: Managers and people leaders
Knowing what to say to a colleague experiencing distress can be critically important, providing a sense of camaraderie and that someone 'has their back'. Keep a few of the statements in this document at hand just in case. Thank you to the American Medical Association’s Ed Hub for the original version.
How to use it: Use the sample script if one of your team members seems distressed. If you are distressed, reach out to someone who can listen and help.
Returning to the Workplace-Resiliency Training for Managers
Family Services Employee Assistance Program
Helps with: Addressing employee and team well-being and resiliency
Audience: Managers and people leaders
This 'Resiliency Toolkit' is designed for all teams (not just health-care/pharmacy teams). It has some well-presented information, strategies, graphics and forms that managers and staff can use to improve wellness and resiliency in the team.
How to use it: This toolkit includes various resources on talking with employees or colleagues about burnout, mental health, grief, loss, trauma, stress management, self-care and resiliency. This resource is detailed and can be overwhelming, so use the table of contents in the document as needed to skip to the section that can help your team best.
Coming Next:
- Organizations: Resources that can be explored by organizations, such as corporate entities, hospitals, health regions, etc.
- System leadership: System-level resources that can be explored by leaders such as CEOs, policymakers, accreditors, boards and councils that set national and provincial policy, programming and quality monitoring.
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