Pharmacists' home visits target adherence in behavioral health patients.

Abstract

To really help a patient with mental illness adhere to a medication regimen, sometimes it’s useful to have a good smartphone playlist. That’s what Tod J. Grimm, director of pharmacy operations at the Centers for Families and Children in Cleveland, Ohio, found while making a house call to one of his patients. This particular patient, Grimm said, had schizophrenia, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and uncontrolled hypertension, and she was also a hoarder. The hoarding habit extended to her medications, which he said completely filled “the 3 biggest purses you ever saw in your life.” When he discovered during the lengthy medication reconciliation session that the woman was obsessed with Michael Jackson, the now-deceased musical artist, Grimm saw a way to put the patient at ease. “If she would start to get really manic or become difficult to work with, I could sort of change topics and put a Michael Jackson song on my iPhone. And that would sort of relax her so that we could go back and dig in and start working. And in the course of a couple hours, I got her compliant on her medications,” he said.