All rural pharmacies across Wales could be offering a C+D Award-winning service to patients suffering from depression next year, Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW) has said.  

CPW said it had "high hopes" for computer-aided cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) to be rolled out in areas with a gap in mental health services, following the success of a pilot that scooped C+D's Innovation of the Year 2012 award. And it could lead to the development of a Welsh national CCBT enhanced service in the future, CPW added.

Sion Llewelyn came up with the service as an alternative to antidepressants as many local patients were unable to see a therapist in person	More on pharmacy services 'Work with GPs' to get services commissioned Northern Ireland expands pharmacy services Local pharmacy service number falls for first time       in six years
	Pharmacist Sion Llewelyn, of Rowlands Pharmacy in Bala, north Wales, came up with the idea for the service as an alternative to antidepressants because many local patients were unable to see a therapist in person, despite Nice recommending cognitive behavioural therapy as a treatment for mild to moderate depression.

"There was a three-month waiting time and they would have to make a round trip of 36 miles on a weekly basis," he told C+D. "Quite a few of those people didn't have a car and it's really difficult to get public transport."

His proposals secured a grant from the Welsh Assembly Government to roll out a free pilot in three local pharmacies, run by CCBT company Beating the Blues, despite normally costing more than £200 per person. The course includes eight 50-minute sessions completed on a weekly basis.

Across the 28 people who had participated in the course, anxiety scores dropped from an average of 12 (moderate depression) to 4 (none/mild), with a similar fall in depression levels, Mr Llewelyn reported.

And he stressed that completing the course in the pharmacy, where patient progress was monitored, offered an advantage over accessing it at home.

"It motivates people to do the course within the timescale – we've only had two people fall out of the programme," Mr Llewelyn explained. "We obviously make them feel as comfortable as possible and we're accessible and approachable, so people feel that they like coming here and having a cup of coffee."

Mr Llewelyn said it was now his aim for the service to be "opened up to being an enhanced service".

Find out more about how Mr Llewelyn implemented the CCBT service and how you could set up a C+D Innovation of the Year award-winning service on C+D's Awards page later this week.