Recipient chapters of Collegiate Chapter Impact Grants presented their projects and posters at the 2023 AAPP Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Representatives from each chapter presented live presentations during the collegiate chapter meeting, and members from the AAPP Foundation Board of Directors were in attendance to hear about these excellent projects! Presentations were recorded and are available to watch online. Congratulations to each of the recipient collegiate chapters on successful projects.
Project: Impact of a Community Immersion Experience on Student Pharmacists' Associated Stigma of Serious Mental Illness
Collegiate Chapter & Primary Author: University of Texas AAPP Collegiate Chapter, Amber Tran
Grant Amount: $2535
Poster
The University of Texas College of Pharmacy Collegiate Chapter completed a research project on the “Impact of a Community Immersion Experience on Student Pharmacists’ Associated Stigma of Serious Mental Illness.” Student investigators included Amber Tran and Saumyaa Patel. Dr. Tawny Smith, Dr. Lindsey Loera and Dr. Samantha Catanzano served as the faculty advisors for the project.
The research team noted how experiential opportunities to interact with patients with serious mental illness are limited for many health professional students. Therefore, they reached out to form a partnership with Austin Clubhouse which is an organization in Austin, Texas that supports the recovery of those experiencing serious mental illness. UT-AAPP set up volunteer opportunities with Austin Clubhouse in which faculty advisors and chapter members would help facilitate.
The service project involved the development of five different workshops that were delivered at Austin Clubhouse. These workshops included sessions on medication adherence, stress relief, heart health, sleep hygiene, and naloxone rescue education. The UT-AAPP chapter used most of their awarded grant money to buy supplies for each of the workshops. Additionally, the research team wanted to observe whether student attitudes towards mental illness changed for those who participated in the service project. The Opening Minds Scale for Healthcare Providers which is a survey to measure stigma related to mental illness was distributed to all AAPP collegiate members before starting the voluntary workshops at Austin Clubhouse. The same survey was provided again after all the workshops were completed. Student who completed the surveys but did not participate in the workshops were used as the comparator group.
More than 50 members of Austin Clubhouse attended one or more workshops provided by UT-AAPP. A total of 16 collegiate student members volunteered to help with the workshops and 13 of the 16 completed the pre and post surveys. Overall, the student researchers observed positive changes in perceived stigma towards mental illness for those students who participated in the workshops. Because of the project led by Ms. Tran and Patel, the UT-AAPP collegiate chapter was able to fill an educational need for those in their community living with serious mental illness while providing pharmacy students opportunities to work with this population earlier in their professional training.
Project: Assessing the Impact of Culture and Stigma on the Utilization of Mental Health Resources Amongst Health Professions
Collegiate Chapter & Primary Author: University of the Incarnate Word AAPP Collegiate Chapter, Cody Thomas
Grant Amount: $1000
Poster
Cody Thomas and Viana Salinas, both PharmD candidate representatives from the University of the Incarnate Word Feik School of Pharmacy in San Antonio, presented their AAPP chapter’s work on Sunday, April 16 at the AAPP Annual Meeting in Atlanta in conjunction with their faculty advisor, Joshua Knebel, PharmD. The primary objective of the research was to determine utilization and perceived barriers surrounding use of student counseling and mental health services using a voluntary student survey. Students from the schools of pharmacy, osteopathic medicine, physical therapy, nursing, and optometry were surveyed.
Thomas and Salinas recognized their unique population of Hispanic/Latinx health professionals at their school. As a result, they were hoping to examine the effect of stigma and culture specifically on this population’s willingness to utilize mental health resources. The results showed an impressive 167 respondents to the survey. Despite the fact that mental health services are physically located on the same campus as the school of nursing, the results showed less survey response and utilization of mental health resources from the schools of nursing and physical therapy.
Overall, the chapter found many opportunities for increased education surrounding the existing resources available for students. Additionally, the group identified a need to have greater incorporation of mental health training and psychiatry curriculum in many of the other health professions schools. The AAPP chapter at the University of Incarnate Word has done a great job with their initial research work, leading to many potential research questions to further examine in the future!