When carried out well, brief advice is an effective way to communicate ways in which people can take their health into their own hands.
It should have the following characteristics:
Raises awareness of and assesses a person’s willingness to engage in further discussion about healthy-lifestyle issues
Usually given opportunistically and linked to the supply of a medicine, product or service
Should normally take up to three minutes and follow this structure: – Listen – Observe – Ask – Assess – Advise – Assist – Record.
Brief intervention
If you follow the above steps when advising customers, you may identify opportunities to make positive interventions. Here is a suggested outline of how interventions can work in the pharmacy:
Often take place when a person responds positively to brief advice or specifically asks for help with a health-related issue
Should take up to 30 minutes
Involve giving simple, opportunistic advice to change: – Assessing a person’s commitment to change – Supplying self-help materials or resources – Offering products and/or behavioural support – Providing specialist support (if suitably trained) or referring or signposting to specialist support – Offering a follow-up appointment if appropriate – Recording the outcome of the discussion.
