The College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP) is an organisation that puts the education and professional development of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians at the centre of our charitable aims and ambitions.
We dedicate our efforts to reducing stigma and inequity and improving outcomes for people who use mental health services across all sectors, including beyond the UK.
For more than 20 years, CHMP has had an established credentialing process for assessing our members’ knowledge and experience to demonstrate their expertise in the field of mental health pharmacy (including intellectual disability and addiction).
For several years, the CMHP has been working with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) to develop a joint advanced mental health credentialing curriculum and assessment programme for pharmacists. At the CMHP, we have received concerns from members following the RPS making changes to their executive team and, although there have been delays, we have had assurance that the RPS will continue with this workstream.
We hope that following the chief pharmaceutical officer’s recently announced planned review of professional leadership for pharmacy the CMHP will be involved in any decisions relating to mental health pharmacy, including education/training and any associated credentialing processes.
We would like to assure our fellow pharmacy professionals that we remain committed to ensuring that any process that is developed retains the high standard we expect of people who already credential through our existing pathways. Therefore, we will continue to ensure that any process we are associated with is robust and supportive, to encourage pharmacy professionals to grow into the mental health specialists our services need.
In the interim — regardless of any planned RPS/pharmacy leadership changes — our existing independent credentialing and foundation certificate pathways (open to both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) remain in place. As do the training and education opportunities (including our Psych 1 and Psych 2 courses) we provide to our members around the world. We continue to strive to develop these to meet the growing demand and welcome feedback from our membership as we continue to move forward together.
College of Mental Health Pharmacy Council
