Could community pharmacies help to improve youth health? Service availability and views of pharmacy personnel in New Zealand.

Objectives: To investigate the availability of youth-relevant community pharmacy services in New Zealand (NZ), and the opinions of pharmacy personnel on the appropriateness of these services for young people aged 12-24.

Methods: Pharmacist and pharmacy support staff (PSS) questionnaires were developed collaboratively with a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and were mailed to 500 randomly selected community pharmacies in NZ.

Results: Response rates for questionnaires were 50.5 % for pharmacists and 37.0 % for PSS. The majority of community pharmacies in NZ offer public health services relevant to youth health including emergency contraception, condoms, smoking cessation, weight management and harm reduction services for drug use. Not all pharmacy personnel believed these services are appropriate for youth, particularly for those aged 16 or under. PSS appeared less likely than pharmacists to feel services were appropriate.

Conclusions: Community pharmacies are offering an increasing range of youth-relevant health services, and may, therefore, be able to improve youth healthcare access. More research is required to investigate the barriers to young people accessing services from pharmacies, and also the challenges for pharmacy personnel in providing services to this age group.