New foundation helps healthcare providers understand and treat mental illness

The College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) is kicking off the launch of its CPNP Foundation with a fund-raising campaign.

CPNP has been working for 2 years to launch the foundation, which seeks to promote state-of-the-art and essential treatment for people affected by psychiatric and neurologic illness.

A primary goal of the CPNP Foundation is to educate pharmacists and other healthcare providers about mental illnesses.

As a result, the foundation wants to develop educational programs aimed at all pharmacists, including those who do not specialize in psychiatric pharmacy.

"We would like to try to eliminate as many barriers as possible, so that the broad pharmacy community is more willing to engage people who have mental illnesses," Caley said.

The foundation will work to ensure that patients with psychiatric and neurologic illnesses have access to pharmacists with the knowledge and skills to improve their care.

"If we can address barriers [and stigmas], then we will be able to improve patient outcomes, because we will hopefully be increasing the number of pharmacists who are willing to engage the patients who are disenfranchised, disadvantaged, and stigmatized," Caley said.

The CPNP Foundation is asking the 100 founding members of CPNP to donate to the cause, including donations of $1,500 or more, which will help fund the initial year of operations. The CPNP Foundation board has pledged $45,000 to support the foundation and cover administrative costs. CPNP is also accepting tax-exempt donations from pharmacists and others. All the funds raised in 2011 will go directly to initial projects.

CPNP is working with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) to promote public awareness of the foundation and its cause.

For more information, call 402-476-1677 or visit http://cpnp.org/.