A partnership between the Cardinal Health Foundation and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) Innovation Center provides mental health resources to help pharmacists support the needs of their patients and the well-being of their staff.
The U.S. has a mental health crisis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exacerbated by such things as the COVID-19 pandemic, financial stress, and social isolation. It is estimated that 23% of the U.S. adult population— nearly 60 million people — live with a mental illness, which can vary from mild to severe, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
As community-based healthcare providers, pharmacists see patients frequently, are accessible and convenient, and have established a high degree of trust with their patients, making them uniquely positioned to identify potential signs of distress and direct patients to appropriate resources in their area. According to the Journal of Managed Care Specialty Pharmacy, patients visit community pharmacies almost twice as often as they visit their physician. Through these more frequent interactions, pharmacists have built a high level of trust with their patients. In fact, according to Gallup’s 2023 Annual Rating of Honesty and Ethics survey, pharmacists are ranked among the top trusted medical professionals.
However, many pharmacists have expressed uncertainty about their ability to address mental health needs. While a majority of pharmacists believe they have received adequate training to care for patients with mental health issues, more than 40% say they are less comfortable addressing mental health compared to physical conditions.
That is why the Cardinal Health Foundation partnered with the NCPA Innovation Center last year to make Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training more accessible to community pharmacists. Cardinal Health Foundation funding allows both NCPA members and non-members to access the training at a discounted rate.
“At Cardinal Health, we believe that mental health is health,” said Jessie Cannon, president of the Cardinal Health Foundation. “We are committed to expanding resources, improving access to care, and encouraging open conversations about mental health, because mental health issues impact all of us – our employees, our families and our communities.”
MHFA is an evidence-based training program that teaches participants how to recognize, understand and respond to mental health and substance abuse challenges.
The training is a 6-hour course delivered by certified instructors affiliated with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. It includes:
Over the past year, the MHFA training made possible through the Cardinal Health Foundation – NCPA Innovation Center partnership has helped to improve community pharmacists’ confidence in supporting their patients with mental health issues and in fostering important conversations with their patients and staff. According to the NCPA Innovation Center, more than 75 pharmacists across 30 states have completed the MHFA training, to date. In addition, the partnership has funded additional resources for community pharmacy teams, including educational webinars, CE courses, articles in NCPA’s America’s Pharmacist® publication and presentations at NCPA conferences.
“I am thrilled that the Cardinal Health Foundation and NCPA Innovation Center are helping to bring the mental health conversation into the pharmacist space because it represents a breakthrough in the type of training being offered to pharmacists,” said Kathy Campbell, PharmD, owner of Medicap Pharmacy® in Owasso, Oklahoma, and longtime advocate for mental health care who completed MHFA training earlier this year. “I think one of the biggest barriers pharmacists are facing right now is a lack of clinical confidence. The MHFA training gives pharmacists a level of permission and an acknowledgement that discussing mental health can be part of our role. We can serve as a health coach in this area.”
Levi Long, PharmD, managing pharmacist at Medicap Pharmacy® in Ames, Iowa, who also completed MFHA training in 2025, said, “Oftentimes, the relationship between pharmacists and patients with mental health issues can be somewhat distant, due to the complexity of these conditions and a lack of training on how to interact with these patients. The MHFA training provides a good understanding of how to address these situations, which can help improve the overall quality of care patients with mental health issues receive.”
Long’s Medicap Pharmacy® has established a partnership with a local residential behavioral health service to fill their patients’ prescriptions. The pharmacy is one of the only pharmacies in the area that administers long-acting injections for patients with mental health issues. As a result, patients with mental health issues make up a large portion of the patient population that Long and his staff interact with daily.
After learning the ALGEE approach at MFHA training, Long was able to apply the plan to help a distressed patient by assessing his mental well-being and connecting him to a local mental health provider to get his prescription filled.
“This was a great example of how to put mental health first aid into practice,” he said. “This patient was extremely agitated and distraught. We were able to really make an impact on the patient’s life.”
Situations like these can be difficult to manage, which is why Long has put the MHFA self-care assessment into use with pharmacy students during their rotation, and often refers to it when debriefing staff after stressful interactions with patients.
“We assess the situation, address our self-care action plans and discuss how we can relax and calm down. I think the MHFA training does a great job of outlining this, and I’ve incorporated it as part of my onboarding of staff.”
The Cardinal Health Foundation and NCPA Innovation Center have renewed the partnership for the next year. The Innovation Center plans to host additional MHFA training sessions and develop more resources, such as webinars, articles, conference presentations, and an episode of their podcast series.
“Our partnership with the NCPA Innovation Center underscores our ongoing commitment and deepening support for the future of independent pharmacy, helping pharmacists deliver the highest level of care to their patients,” said Brad Cochran, President, Pharmaceutical and Specialty Distribution at Cardinal Health. “Mental health care is essential to community well-being, and we are proud to support expanded access to resources that empower pharmacists to meet this growing need.”
Editor’s note: To learn more about accessing MHFA training through the NCPA Innovation Center, please visit https://ncpa.org/mental-health-resources.