The multiple has enlisted charity Pharmacist Support to launch the training “in early 2018”, it told C+D yesterday (December 5).

The support offered to Boots pharmacists has come under scrutiny following criticism from MPs during a parliamentary debate in October about Alison Stamps, a Boots pharmacist working in County Durham, who took her own life in May 2015.

C+D reported in October that Boots has worked with Pharmacist Support “for a number of years” – including delivering wellbeing training videos to all 6,500 of its pharmacists in 2016 (see below for ways to contact Pharmacist Support).

Challenges around mental health and wellbeing

Boots chief pharmacist Marc Donovan attended a Pharmacist Support workshop last week (November 30) – along with representatives from Lloydspharmacy, Well and Day Lewis – to give senior executives a taster session of the assertiveness and time-management training the charity offers.

Mr Donovan told C+D yesterday (December 5) that Boots “recognised for some time the challenges faced in the UK around mental health and wellbeing”.

“We regularly review the content of our wellbeing sessions and we will be looking to include resilience and assertiveness going forwards,” Mr Donovan said.

“These topics will be included in our wellbeing workshops for all our new pre-registration pharmacists, which will take place in early 2018.”

Strengthening the mental health training the company offers its pre-reg trainees will play “an important part in our learning and development programme for our pharmacists”, he added.

Pharmacist Support now offers three new training sessions – on assertiveness, stress management and building resilience, and time management – as well as their "introduction to wellbeing" workshop, to groups of 15 or more pharmacists.