A Brighton pharmacy is working with a local college to offer a placement to one of its autistic students. 

Based in Saltdean, Healthy-U Pharmacy has been working with St. John’s College, a local education provider specialising in supporting autistic young people aged 16-25. 

At the end of 2023, one of the college’s staff who uses the pharmacy came in and told the pharmacy’s superintendent pharmacist Derviş Gürol that one of its students wanted to become a dispenser. 

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After initially coming in at the end of 2023 for a few days to see how it went, the autistic young person is completing a dispensing course with Healthy-U. 

“He comes once a week every Friday and he slowly learns in the dispensary what we do and how we do it,” Gürol told C+D. 

“The training provider understands the challenges that come with disabilities as such, so we adjusted the programme slightly to cater for his need.” 

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Gürol shared a post during Autism Acceptance Week last week (April 5) on how the week “holds deep meaning for us at Healthy-U Pharmacy”.  

He added that “finding placement providers for individuals on the autism spectrum who want to begin their journey in pharmacy can be a real challenge”. 

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While Gürol has provided placements for University of Brighton students as well as those completing access courses, it’s the first time his pharmacy has supported a student learning at a specialist college for autistic people.  

But Gürol’s own experience as a parent to his autistic son made him want to support the student achieve his ambition. 

“It resonates with me and it’s personal. I have an autistic son and I see the pathways challenges he will have. When somebody wants to do something for themselves and it keeps them happy, I see it almost like an obligation to help them because we can only make our society better if we help people.

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“This person went into 30-40 different pharmacies before they came into mine and I decided I would find a way to help him because I know I could, I wanted to, and I have a personal attachment to the cause."

Last week was the first time the student has been able to come in independently without his support worker. 

And Gürol says his pharmacy offers equitable access for him through flexibility in the times he arrives and leaves work when it is suitable for him to “address his anxieties, his needs and assist him to the best possible outcome”. 

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With a year to go to completing the dispensing qualification, he is learning on a patient medication record (PMR) system that helps to rectify any mistakes that may happen before a patient receives their medication. 

“We use TITAN PMR and it’s an easier process. If I was using another PMR it may have been trickier because if he’s having a stressful day he may make mistakes. But TITAN catches the mistakes. 

“So if they make a mistake, it won’t go to the patient. We’ve got fail safes in place that enable us to provide the training and make sure patient safety is not affected. We can go back and teach him what error was made and assist him better to work around things that may be a challenge for him.” 

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Gürol acknowledges that how a pharmacy operates and its staffing levels can be a barrier for other community pharmacies to offer similar placements, but he says for the future “if there is demand, I will always be there to assist people”. 

“It’s thanks to St. John’s that I managed to come up with this training and for them persevering with it,” he added.