Abstract
BACKGROUND: Subthreshold depression and anxiety are common, affecting up to 24 % of people over their lifetime and are often associated with long-term conditions. Community pharmacists, who often have an established relationship with people who have long-term conditions, are well placed to identify and address subthreshold depression and anxiety and reduce the risk of progression to clinical mental health disorders. METHODS: Semi-structured individual qualitative interviews were conducted with community pharmacists to explore their perspectives on a pharmacy service for long-term condition patients with subthreshold depression and anxiety. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed in intelligent verbatim and analysed using a General Inductive Approach. RESULTS: Eleven purposively selected community pharmacists from diverse backgrounds were interviewed. Four main themes were identified, each with several subthemes. These related to existing support mechanisms for delivering long-term condition and mental health services in community pharmacies, pharmacists' perceptions and attitudes toward service delivery, barriers and facilitators to service implementation, and the design and implementation of a service. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to explore community pharmacists' perspectives on a pharmacy intervention for long-term condition patients with subthreshold depression and anxiety. Overall, community pharmacists expressed positive attitudes toward delivering an intervention for people with long-term conditions and subthreshold depression and anxiety. Future work would involve taking a co-design approach to developing and evaluating such an intervention.