The College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP) has awarded the postgraduate psychiatry pharmacy programme at Aston University its badge of approval through its accreditation scheme.
Pharmacy professionals with an interest in mental health can be assured that if they enrol on the programme they will follow an accredited course, which provides valuable experience and insight for pursuing a career in psychiatric pharmacy.
Dr Ian Maidment, Programme Director at Aston University said: “At Aston we are really pleased to obtain this ‘stamp of approval’ from such a prestigious organisation as the CMHP; it is a real vote of confidence in our course.
“On average, people experiencing mental illness live at least 10 years less than others. It is therefore essential that we educate pharmacists and other professionals to help improve healthcare for these patients. I am proud that through Aston working with the college we are contributing to this key public health objective.”
The postgraduate psychiatry pharmacy programme offers unique qualifications - certificate, diploma or MSc – and attracts students from around the world.
Nikki Holmes, President of the CMHP, said: “We are delighted to have been able to work with our Aston University colleagues to review and endorse the educational content of the programme. We are proud to accredit these postgraduate mental health pharmacy courses.
“From my perspective as an employer, the courses at Aston are invaluable and unique. They provide high-quality, relevant and practical educational opportunities for my staff, to better enable them to undertake their roles as specialist mental health pharmacy professionals in a more informed and able manner for the benefit of the service users they're working with.
“The courses are paced well and give constructive feedback to students to allow incremental improvement throughout. Having relevant experts design, facilitate and mark the course adds robustness and credibility to the resulting qualification, which is of sufficiently high standard to be the qualification of choice to enable application to become a credentialed member of the College of Mental Health Pharmacy.”
- To find out more about the psychiatric programme at Aston visit: http://www.aston.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/taught-programmes/life-health-sciences/psychiatric-pharmacy/