CMHP Council member Trudi Hilton says she is delighted and surprised to have her work recognised as 'a contribution to the practice of pharmacy through humanitarian work' in a Special Recognition Award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Trudi’s work has been pioneering in making sure that pharmacists are increasingly used as part of medical relief teams and that the important role of a pharmacist wherever medicines are used is more widely recognised in development and disasters. She also co-authored a poster at the RPS Conference on developing a network to encourage others to do the same, which received a commendation.
After 20 years working in the NHS, Trudi joined the humanitarian aid sector (and) to work with a charity which donates medicines from Europe and North America into developing countries, and in response to disasters. in the last couple of years Trudi has been working as an independent consultant with the WHO in the Philippines to improve access to medicines for people with mental illness in over 1700 islands, which included creating a clinical guideline and procurement strategy.
She has met and worked with pharmacists in many resource-poor settings and is always encouraged to see how our profession can make such a big difference for patients, despite many hurdles and challenges. Recently she returned from Afghanistan where the security situation adds yet another obstacle to patients accessing healthcare but doesn't reduce the commitment and determination of the pharmacy team to get medicines where they are needed.
Trudi was an elected founder member of CMHP and worked with the other founders to develop the specialist mental health pharmacist accreditation process (now termed credentialling) and facilitate the accreditation of the first dozen members. She now holds the public involvement portfolio for the CMHP Council.
Trudi received the award at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society ceremony at the weekend (13 September). For details of other award winners please see the Pharmaceutical Journal news announcement: 2015 RPS award winners announced
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