Thinking about and acting on concerns about the mental health of the team within your pharmacy forms a sound basis for a reflective account as a revalidation entry for the GPhC, as shown below:  

Tell us briefly about your area of work (the setting of your practice and your main roles). 
This can be quite succinct. For example: ‘I am a pharmacist working in an independent community pharmacy, responsible for a range of services including prescription dispensing and OTC sales, while overseeing a staff of 11 people.’

Tell us briefly who the typical users of your service(s) are. Tell us how you meet the standards for pharmacy professionals we have selected. 
Don’t feel that service users are restricted to patients. The GPhC states that these can be lots of different groups of people including pharmacy colleagues. The main thing is to demonstrate how your learning has been of benefit to the group you cite.  

Give a real example(s) taken from your practice to illustrate how you meet the standards we have selected. 
This forms the bulk of your entry and needs to be specific and detailed. For example: 

‘Since March we have been in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic and my pharmacy has been relentlessly busy while the whole team has had to adapt to new ways of working, such as introducing a one-way system to facilitate social distancing and wearing PPE when in customer-facing roles. This has been an incredibly stressful time for everyone concerned, but particularly those who suddenly had children at home instead of at school, who were unable to access their usual childcare providers such as family members and trying to deal with home education as well as the frantic pace of working life within the pharmacy. 

After reading a CPD module in Pharmacy Magazine about the mental health of pharmacy teams, I realised that while everyone had been stressed at times, there was one member of staff in particular who seemed to have been deteriorating recently in her productivity. I paid closer attention to her after reading this module and realised that she appeared to be struggling a lot, showing signs of not just stress but also anxiety.  

On a day when another pharmacist was on duty, I took her to one side and simply asked how she was. She then confided in me that she was finding things extremely hard at home and described symptoms to me which sounded very reminiscent of generalised anxiety disorder. I suggested that she approach her GP for help, reassuring her that conditions such as anxiety are very common but eminently manageable if tackled early.  

She sought help, engaged with a counsellor and has improved in mood and productivity to the point that she has been able to lead on a wellbeing drive for all staff, promoting the importance of good mental health for healthcare teams as well as patients, and researching free wellbeing apps so staff members could try them and report back on what they felt was useful and helpful so others could then benefit.  

As a result, personal mental health is talked about much more openly and non-judgementally than ever before and the workplace feels a better place for everyone, which is very important as we go into what will be a busy and pressurised winter season, and also more generally for the future. 

In terms of the Standards, I have shown leadership in putting mental health of the team on the agenda despite everything else that is going on in the pharmacy, have demonstrated good communication skills in broaching the subject with a staff member and encouraging her to seek help, and furthered my professionalism and that of my team.’