Community challenge

RIZE Massachusetts is the self-described “only public-private partnership solely dedicated to funding solutions to end the overdose crisis.” In their mission to solution together with communities to achieve “zero stigma. zero deaths,” the team sought to address the critical but too-often overlooked role pharmacists could take in crisis prevention, counseling, and care.

Gathering 30+ leaders from across the OUD (opioid use disorder) care continuum, RIZE commissioned Beneficent to lead a workshop that would help the team envision together a future in which pharmacists are equipped to play a more central role in treating OUD and in providing harm reduction services within their communities.

Transform together

Starting by grounding the team in their commonalities despite their diverse backgrounds, Beneficent helped them voice their collective principles and passion for reducing stigma and increasing life-saving access to care within their communities.

The group then moved into the co-creation of a journey map detailing the current state of the patient and pharmacist experience from three unique perspectives: that of a person filling an opioid prescription for the first time; someone who is at risk for overdose and could benefit from harm reduction; and finally someone who is seeking OUD treatment.

Through discussion and analysis, the team arrived at common themes: including pharmacy environment and role of the pharmacist, the reality of regulatory limitations and business models, societal stigmas about the issue, and the lack of of the pharmacist on an OUD patient’s collaborative care team.

Outcomes & benefits

1. Envisioning a future state, together

Co-creating an ideal vision of the future state, with the current state and its themes in mind, small groups ideated several top-priority issues to address in order to improve health outcomes.

2. Determining actionable next steps

Co-creating the way forward from current to ideal state led to the emergence of clear action steps for this set of leaders to implement in their organizations both as practice and as policy.

Experience Matters

Challenges:

Systemic, regulatory, organizational, and societal obstacles to pharmacists’ impact

• Pharmacists are typically not on care teams

• Mischaracterization of patients as criminals

Opportunities:

Pharmacists’ unique access to communities and resulting ability to help those at risk

• Dignity and empathy reduce stigma

• Diverse perspectives drive better outcomes

Results:

New models for collaborative care teams that include pharmacists

• Ideation for pharmacists’ roles in improving community health outcomes

• Clear action steps for the many different groups that can impact the issue

Sarah Merrefield
Senior Program Officer, RIZE Ma

“It has been joy working with Beneficent! The team learned so much about pharmacy in short order, I’m so impressed! Besides all your amazing event design expertise, of course.”