A large proportion of the world's disease burden is attributable to mental illnesses. Although effective interventions are available, many patients still have limited access to evidence-based treatments. Aside from access, treatment gaps, including inappropriate medication selection and monitoring, are also routinely recognised. Mental health clinical pharmacists can help address these gaps and enable patients to receive optimised pharmaceutical care, particularly appropriate medication selection and monitoring. The European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) Special Interest Group on Mental Health was established to improve standardised service provision in mental health settings across Europe. The Special Interest Group identified significant barriers (predominantly associated with reimbursement and position within the multidisciplinary team) to effective pharmaceutical care amongst those with mental illnesses. This commentary presents recommendations to address these gaps through improved mental health clinical pharmacy service provision.

Department of Applied Pharmacy Faculty of Pharmacy Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Clinical Pharmacy Faculty of Pharmacy Hacettepe University Ankara Turkey

Department of Clinical Pharmacy Ormoz Psychiatric Hospital Ormoz Slovenia

Department of Mental Health Varisano Hospital Frankfurt Hoechst Frankfurt Germany

Department of Pharmacology Faculty of Medicine Maribor University of Maribor Maribor Slovenia

Department of Psychiatry Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy University Hospital Frankfurt Frankfurt Germany

Hospital Pharmacy Rovigo Hospital Rovigo Italy

Pharmacy Bobanović Vujnović Pula Croatia

Pharmacy Department Hospital of Elisabethians Graz Austria

Pharmacy Department St Patrick's University Hospital Dublin 8 Ireland

Pharmacy Department Vienna General Hospital Medical University Campus Vienna Austria

Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice Prague Czech Republic

Research Institute for Medicines Faculty of Pharmacy University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal

School of Pharmacy University College Cork Cork Ireland

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European Society of Clinical Pharmacy: 'the prescribing pharmacist: a prescription for better patient care'