21 Jan 2014 – A total of 47 participants attended a short talk titled ‘Role of Pharmacists in Management of Substance Misuse’ at the Senate Room in IMU’s campus in Bukit Jalil. The talk was delivered by A/Prof Janie Sheridan, IMU’s adjunct professor. A/Prof Janie Sheridan is also the Research Director and Deputy Head of School as well as Chair of the Centre for Addiction Research at the University of Auckland. The talk was held in collaboration with the University’s Alumni, together with the Young Pharmacist Chapter, an integral part of Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society. Most of the participants were members of the IMU Alumni (BPharm and MPharm) who are now registered pharmacists in Malaysia. Before the talk started, the participants took this opportunity to network with fellow pharmacists and alumni members while enjoying the light refreshments.
In this talk, A/Prof Sheridan emphasised the roles of community pharmacists in ‘harm reduction’ (other than dispensing controlled drugs), supplying clean equipment and managing primary care issues. She also gave a precise definition and clarification of alcoholics, explaining the parameters required to consider one as an alcoholic. The speaker then enlightened the audience on the involvement of community pharmacists in assisting the alcoholics to reduce and understand the harmful effects brought by the overindulgence in alcohols.
After the talk, the door was open for the audience to ask questions in order to give them the opportunity to them gain better understanding of the talk. This talk is part of a series of monthly talks on different topics related to health issues.
