Developing an educational package to upskill pharmacists in promoting health behaviour change

This project is an adaptation of a programme tested in the UK called “Make every contact counts”. It aims to upskill health providers in health behaviour change techniques to help make the most of every interaction that a health professional has with a patient, to improve individual health behaviours such as medicines adherence, sun protection, and weight management. We successfully obtained funding from the NZ Pharmacy Education and Research Foundation (NZPERF) to develop a similar programme for NZ pharmacists over the next two years. We have started co-design consultation work with pharmacists, and will develop this programme with a health psychologist over the next year.