Walgreens provides mental health medication.
Mental Health America, a nonprofit organization, has now a partnership with Walgreens aiming to provide the customers with help in identifying and in treating mental health conditions.
A first step is that treatment, facilitation and online screening for anxiety and depression are now free. Plus, telephone and digital consultations will be now provided for $60 for patients who don’t have a health insurance.
According to the chief medical officer of Walgreens, Harry Leider, this is the first successful attempt to approach a mental health condition from a retail pharmacy. The National Institutes of Health stated that this improvement is vital because one in five Americans suffers from mental health issues every year, which is more than diabetes and heart disease.
Leyder believes that a big problem in dealing with mental health conditions is assuring that patients stand by their medication, because of the extended period needed to see the good or the side effects of medicine.
Informational resources and follow-up reminders about the medication will start circulating online and in stores even if Walgreens has already been ensuring prescription education to its customers.
Therefore, patients will be now better informed, more aware of the side effects of any product and they will feel more confident about taking the prescribed medicine. Walgreens provides prescriptions not only for mental health medication but also for other health issues.
The chief executive of MHA, Paul Gionfriddo, hopes that many people who were early diagnosed will be provided with the best support and the correct treatment. A health condition which was early detected is much easier to deal with and with less effort.
Same tests as the ones performed by licensed clinicians are used to identify anxiety, depression and distinct conditions. Furthermore, brief online screening has a formidable efficiency of 80 percent in diagnosing a mental health condition according to Daniel Eisenberg, professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan.
These tests have already been used on college students, but they are still less known among the general population.
In the following year, Walgreens aims to stretch to three million people with the help of these additional services. This target can be achieved because there is already a substantial increase in the number of individuals who benefit from their assistance.
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