Pharmacy Involvement in Multidisciplinary Frailty Teams

Frailty is a long term condition.  Older people living with frailty are at risk of adverse outcomes, such as dramatic changes in their physical and mental wellbeing, after an apparently minor event which challenges their health, for example an infection or new medication.  The adverse effects of frailty can be reduced by interventions such as medication review and reducing falls risk.  Pharmacy teams are well placed to provide this type of intervention as part of an MDT supporting frail older people.

The RD&E Community Services Pharmacy Team provide a patient centred and collaborative approach to medicines management aiming to enable patients to manage their medicines safely, reduce the risk of medicines-related harm, support discharge, prevent admission and keep patients at home.

This session will offer an insight into the involvement of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in community based multidisciplinary frailty teams. 

Kate Emblin is a Community Services Pharmacist at the Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust.  She has worked in Community Services for eleven years, working in both community hospitals and the home visiting teams.  Kate works as part of a community multidisciplinary health and social care team providing home-based clinical medication reviews for frail older people, assessing their risk of medicine-related harm in order to reduce these risks and potentially prevent hospital admissions.  The Exeter Cluster Pharmacy home visiting team was shortlisted for an HSJ award in 2016.  In the last two years, Kate has been involved in expanding the home visiting service to cover Exeter, East and Mid Devon with a positive impact on our local communities.

Kate is also a Teacher Practitioner at the University of Exeter College of Medicine and Health, where she is Co-Lead for the MSc Clinical Pharmacy programme.

Foundation/Advanced level