Yvette Anderson - Bridging Pharmacy Expertise and Parenthood: A Spectrum of Experiences

Yvette Anderson is a clinical accredited pharmacist and pharmapreneur passionate about neurodevelopmental conditions.

Spanning over 15 years as a registered pharmacist Yvette has experience in aged care, consultancy, community pharmacy and both private and public hospital pharmacy.

In 2020 Yvette launched The Spectrum Pharmacist, a combination of professional knowledge and lived experience to increase awareness, promote inclusion, and provide education and support.

In 2022 Yvette won the PSA Pharmacy Shark Tank and the PSA Victorian Pharmacist of the Year for her commitment and initiatives in the neurodivergent space.

You can find Yvette Anderson on LinkedIn.

Do you have questions about your pharmacy career? Then contact us or meet our team.

Transcript

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Your Pharmacy Career podcast proudly brought to you by Raven's Recruitment Australia's Pharmacy recruitment agency

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spotlights the Myriad of career paths available to pharmacists your host Kristi Lee Patterson and her esteemed

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guests will be sharing invaluable career advice that you can Implement at any stage of your career Journey welcome to

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your Pharmacy career podcast I'm your host Kristi Lee Patterson in today's episode we have a remarkable guest

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joining us today someone whose journey in the world of Pharmacy has been deeply intertwined with their personal

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experiences she's a seasoned pharmacist an advocate and a business owner and the

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2022 PSA Victorian pharmacist of the year but her story doesn't stop there

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Our Guest today IET also known as the Spectrum pharmacist is not only a dedicated healthare professional but

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she's also a loving mother who has navigated the unique challenges and rewards of Ra in children on the

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Spectrum she's the driving force behind the Spectrum pharmacist initiative and is working on a very exciting all my

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health one app aimed at empowering neurodiverse individuals to simplify Health Care join us as we dive into

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Yvette's incredible Journey her advocacy work and her vision for a more inclusive Health Care System IET welcome to the

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show well thank you so much Kristi Lee that was a lovely intro I really appreciate that um so yeah I'd love love

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for you to yeah give us a little brief intro on yourself and how did you get to

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yeah the Spectrum pharmacist yeah so um my journey started probably a lot like

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of other pharmacist I did some work experience when I was in year n and and

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probably never left Pharmacy ever since I've worked in community pharmacies I've

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done everything from locing to managing roles and Professional Services roles

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I'm a HMR accredited pharmacist so um really loved doing that loved going into

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people's homes and getting to know them and and you know in that beautiful space that you can kind of really do a deep

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dive into what's really happening in in their own world I've worked in Age Care

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um which opened my eyes I I wasn't quite sure about it to start with and um but

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no it was a really powerful role actually to be able to not only get to know the staff and and some of the

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residents there but actually to be part of their quality use of medicines been a hospital pharmacist for

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over a decade now and absolutely love it and then I also do some work with Farm

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online um which is a T Health pharmacist Services here in Australia that was

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started by anab bwick um and that's probably you know around about

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2020 um when we you know I was coming home from work and thinking right you

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know we can't interact with people the way we used to let's try and you know Branch out and in that time we were

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having some extra difficulties at home with with the boys that the Spectrum pharmacist came about still enjoying

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learning every day and and interacting with people and and being able to

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educate and and improve that awareness not only for healthcare individuals but

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you know for the general population which I think is really important I'd like to start

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maybe unpicking the the Spectrum pharmacist part absolutely changed my world you know my eldest son is now 14

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so he was diagnosed when he was three and a half um so obviously quite young

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but in the grand scheme of things we probably knew from 2 2 and a half you know there were certain quirks and it

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was a way for him to kind of be able to say he's a little bit quirky so I apologize if that offends anyone but um

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they are they're a little bit quirky sometimes and sounds nice I hate the word deficit absolutely should be out

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but anyway I think you know having someone in your immediate family or

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whether it's you know your own children or your partner or a loved one it does

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change your perspective and and how you interact in the world in general you look at things very differently even to

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the point of walking into a pharmacy or a supermarket and just realizing just how overwhelming those spaces are so you

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know we we took a a really different lens on on how the world functions and

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what opportunities there are for someone who does identify on the Spectrum yes I totally agree when I

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first went through University and um was a pharmacist in in Community Pharmacy

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I'd never really um thought about the space of what a

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pharmacy is and how people interact with it overwhelming es and a lot of

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pharmacies when feel quite overwhelming um for people um that are neurodiverse

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if you are a pharmacy owner or a pharmacy manager um think about how your

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space um is designed I managed a Community Pharmacy in jalong for quite a

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few years and I look back now like it was a big Pharmacy and there was always lots going on and we had um you know the

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Cosmetics ranges and all the perfumes and things would have been the most overwhelming scenario to kind of walk

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through and you had to walk past all of that to get to The Dispensary which was towards the back of the shop and you're

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right like the lighting and and even all the signage you know cuz you know it's

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all about your brand and and you're making sure that you know all your um all your eyes are all marked out nicely

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and and to most you know people it looks it looks really pretty and it's bright and and eye-catching but I look at it in

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a really different lens now and you know sometimes I walk into Shops and and even I get a bit cringy and I kind of turn

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around go yeah no it's just too much on some days and I I'm not autistic I don't have that sensory overload but um I

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certainly do notice a lot more now there are just some places where my Suns you kind of they'll go in but they certainly

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start to shut down a little bit more and we're like right let's get in and get out and and off we go but um yeah it

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would be really great like it the supermarkets have got quiet times now and they dim their lights a little bit

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more in the music so it' be really great if a Community Pharmacy would would take

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that on board so hopefully if there's someone who wants to be the Trailblazer there we'll we'll jump on board with

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them different perspective completely yeah absolutely and I think that's the thing having more people share their

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their stories and and what it feels like I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD

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myself and it has been a um a really big Lear curve cuz just my understanding of

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um the condition itself I will be honest I actually had

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stigma um associated with it even going through University I I never picked up

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that this was me they're like didn't you pick this up when you learned about it

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and no I did not pick it pick it up um and so there's definitely still that um

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that bias of um handling medication requests sometimes people late or maybe

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they forget their medicines or um they find it really hard to get to an appointment and um these were things I

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never considered a lot of the um neurodiverse medications are S8 medic

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medications and so there's a lot of regulations around that us to get frustrated when people want them early

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or like they they've missed a whole heap or um they're not taking it what I thought was as prescribed like they're

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not taking it every day um but then learn about it myself it's so unique um

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it's very much trial and error and that was something that I I didn't understand also the side effects as well as

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pharmacists we pride ourselves in in being the medicine's experts and understanding side effects but thinking

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about them as how do they affect the person um and something that might seem

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very minor side effect can actually be quite a big side effect for the person

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so I'd love to hear your experience with that with your with your children um and

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and managing those medicines and what was your experience with some of the pharmacists when you would get the

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medication for your sons i' love your honesty cuz like this is about learning I have to admit that I've had some

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terrible experiences with some Community pharmacies over this journey when I look

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back on it it's that you know without that experience and and especially that knowledge that I I can understand why

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probably some of the interactions happened but we lived in Tasmania for

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about 3 years and their rules are 30-day rules and at that point your medicine

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came in a quantity of 30 so I was literally giving the last tablet to the boys and having to make sure I got to

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the pharmacy during that time and if they were out of stock you know your heart just jumps in your chest and there

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was a couple of times where they didn't have a stock and I'm running around and trying to find medication they're going

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oh you've been to so many different pharmacies today because you know stample I'm like I'm just trying to get this medication you know or you try and

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get it early because you know unfortunately we have days that we're not our best selves whether we're on the

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Spectrum or not and you know we happen to drop medicines and step on it and or

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you know we think we've taken them and then we realize no they went in the bin or you know and scenarios when if

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someone you talk to your commun pharmacist about that and it might be your blood pressure medication you know

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in general terms like oh yep I understand things happen you know day-to-day it's just life when it comes

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to especially stimulants there is a lens there and unfortunately there is still

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that stigma there like it it wasn't actually an easy decision for myself and

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my husband to put our boys on stimulant medications when they um when it got to

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that point with their ADH and and even as a pharmacist you know you you get some education at University but nowhere

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near the amount that we need um so I had to you know really dive deep and and do

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a lot of research myself but the stigma surrounding it is still really prevalent

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and that's something that I really want to you know try and Advocate that these

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individuals you know they've got this chronic lifelong you know condition that

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when we think about neurodevelopmental conditions there is a significant cognitive and you know emotional and

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social impact on on all areas of their their health and their life that I think

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an elevation of of compassion and understanding would be really absolutely

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phenomenal to see a lot more so but we're working on it um as for side

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effects yeah we we started the traditional route of you know the immediate released Ridin and and

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gradually moved up and that worked out really well and went to ridland LA that

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at that point my son couldn't swallow capsules so we were opening up the pellets and putting it on a spoon and

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and taking it that way and when we took it into school when we moved to tazzy because where we were in jalong you know

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they'd gotten used to it and he'd started you know his kind of medication Journey there and we went to tazzi and I

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had to explain to the school uh you know there's a spoon in here and the medication and they looked at me like I

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was crazy sort of thing go why you bring your spoon and but you know luckily my son was quite good that he didn't spill

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it too often but it you know sometimes pellets ran away got to the point that he he's a really fast metabolizer and so

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we changed to viance and I thought right this is going to be the goal you know we got things sorted now it's going to be

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one tablet a day let's try and change that and within less than a week he was

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sitting in in front of the TV in absolute tears there was ads on and I'm like what is going on buddy like you

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know and he's like I can't stop crying I feel so sad you know everything feels so

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so real and I I've got this you know burnt into my brain this you know I

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think he was about it would have been 10 or 11 at the time and here I am giving a

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medication to my little boy that I was thinking is going to you know make life so much easier for him and

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and you know eliminate all these barriers that I thought and then he's sitting in front of the TV and just

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absolutely boiling his eyes out and I'm just oh my god what have I done sort of thing and soon as we stopped the Vive an

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well fin it's amazing that that side effect so you know um thankfully we

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haven't had too many other horrible side effect stories I do get a lot of questions in regards to the nausea a lot

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of people especially children have got really sensitive gut line Linings and you know if they've got additional

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sensory needs you know their um dietry intake might be really quite limited and

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and you know whether it's specific Foods or textures and and smell so um a lot of

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medications obviously those side effects that we kind of go oh you know here's the list in the CMI and these are you

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know things that you may experience well they're probably more likely to experience so let's start talking about them and make them really aware and what

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can we do to prevent them rather than you know go the other way around is something that I I kind of focus on but

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um yeah I think it's um important for pharmacist to understand the the impact

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of individual side effects um on the person I see them as a holistic person

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and um i' also would love to know what

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your thoughts are on um I guess pharmacists that may maybe might want to

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hire someone who is neurodiverse or they don't realize they've hired someone that's neurodiverse every person like

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you said is is unique and we all do things in certain ways and and have our particular set of you know we like clean

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benches or we're good with mess or we're great communicators or you know we need extra reminders and I think you know

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finding out in your in your Pharmacy if you are the manager where where's your strengths for for each of your team

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members members and what do they feel most comfortable in like there's nothing worse than having someone who just you

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know loves that detail and and you know really strives and and you know puts

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processes in place or might be really good with policies and procedures or you know the the details of Webster checks

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you know you want to advocate for those strengths and then they're going to feel more empowered in the workplace but you

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also need to consider right well do this scenario that um this pharmacist who uh employ

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this intern said oh they've said they need extra breaks you know how I work that in I'm like good they've they've

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identified that Community Pharmacy is a is a can be an overwhelming space and there's going to be certain times that

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just go right you know as much as I need all hands on deck maybe it might just be do you need a five minute break and make

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that as part of you know it is more than fine if you feel that you're getting

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overwhelmed or you know whether be noise or you know whatever it is that you can

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kind of step away for a few minutes and regroup and then be able to to represent

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and and get back to work so as much as we all like to think that we're great at

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all things there's always something that we're extra extra talented in and you

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know if you're a manager find out where where those talents lie and where those passions lie you might all of a sudden

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find someone who is is really you know that detailed focus and they can write

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policies and Implement all sorts of things that are amazing for your Pharmacy and then you've got another pharmacist who just loves being out on

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the floor and talking the talk they're going to be a great ying and yang but they're going to work together in this

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phenomenal way that you're going to get these great outcomes if you're working with someone who maybe is not you know

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whether they're undiagnosed or they've not disclosed you know CU you don't have to there's no no rules that you have to

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disclose if you're a manager or a team leader I'm hoping that you're you've got a good

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enough relationship and an open relationship that you can kind of look at your your individual team members and

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go wow they're really good at x y and Zed and they're maybe not so good at A and C well let's focus while you know is

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it because they don't know the a b and c options or is it because they just really feel uncomfortable in it so I'm

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hoping more and more individuals that do identify whether they're diagnosed or undiagnosed can start to feel more

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empowered to be able to say to an employer look you know this is where my strengths lie and these are the

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challenges I'm not saying that you know these challenges prevent me from doing you know parts of my my role but perhaps

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maybe more of my role can be focused on the areas that that I feel that I thrive and and give you the most the most value

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but I certainly like the idea of you know building in those those extra breaks that just mean someone can can

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kind of decompress as such and and let that mine semi settle as much as maybe

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an ADHD mine can cuz I know it's really hard um but just giving someone the

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chance to go look you know this is what I want to do you know I love Pharmacy you know these areas in other words

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freak me out a little bit we're not going to get any value out of anyone being in an a comfortable situation

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you're more likely going to lose a great employee rather than you know make them try and do something that they is not

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comfortable with so yeah I think that's really great advice um regardless of if the neuro

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diverse or not um especially even talking about breaks um Community

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pharmacies you're on your feet all day professional burnout is something that's happening that's rampant um but I'd love

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to now kind of jump back to your career in in Hospital Pharmacy and you said

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that you love it which is great I I love hearing when people love they found what

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they love to do um and so for someone like myself the only experience I've had

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in Hospital Pharmacy was my four weeks of placement at Uni maybe for those younger pharmacists or maybe pharmacists

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that looking for a career change what draws you to Hospital Pharmacy and and why do you love that so much yeah so um

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going through uni I was the same i' I'd done my placement and I loved the

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placement I I went to West me Children's Hospital still remember some of the pharmacists by name there and and it was

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just a really good experience but when it came time to do my registration i' been working Community I'm like Y no

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this is where I'm where I'm settled and it it probably wasn't until I did my

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accreditation for uh home medication reviews and got more involved in that that I realized that a lot of those

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clinical skills and that that attention to detail that my brain loves I wasn't

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probably getting enough of that in my community pharmacist role now we are

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kind of running out of time I feel like I could speak to you like for days we could probably unpick so many different

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areas that we that you've mentioned um just from yeah pharmacists not being

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involved in the the care team for people um that are neurodiverse and trying to

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understand how pharmacists can help there um understanding the the medicines on on

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this the Spectrum and how they impact the person um and then advice for

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employees wanting to hire or or maybe have hired people with neurodiverse um skills the advice that

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I'm kind of hearing from you and what I would also give is everyone's unique anyway and it's not a one-sized fits-all

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approach um whether it's hospital or Community Pharmacy sometimes it's when it's busy especially

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in Community Pharmacy you can't speak for hospital but it can turn into a bit of a production line it's really busy

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especially around safety net season Y get them in get them out and it's just

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full on but sometimes I think that as pharmacist we put the pressure on

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ourselves to do things really fast if we just take the time

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to understand each individual person that's coming in when you mentioned about Hospital Pharmacy they're at their

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worse well even in Community Pharmacy like they're coming in most of the time because they're sick or they're not well

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or something's going on I'm just being mindful of that and um I guess setting

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those boundaries a little bit with the customers to say it's it's going to be XY Z time or um and if you communicate

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that I find that customers are pretty to happy to wait a little bit longer um and

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that advice around yeah making sure that people can have enough breaks and think about um yeah the lighting in your store

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or the sounds but before we wrap up I do want to ask a little bit of info about this

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all my health one app so I am very interested in digital Health

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Technologies and so I know you probably can't say too much because it is a work in progress but if you could yeah cover

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of what this is so yeah our listeners can stay tuned yeah so this is my

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2023 kind of project the idea behind all my health is a

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onstop app for the day-to-day things with appointments and prescription

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reminders but it will also have real time monitoring sometimes you just need you know those reminders to go look

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things aren't going so well it might be five questions and and or a little sentence to kind of go look this is

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what's happening so when you do get a chance to speak to your Healthcare team you've got that information there rather

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than trying to remember what happened last week it'll interface with your GP Community pharmacist your Allied Health

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but it's your information so you're in control of it if you go to hospital there'll be a template that can be

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downloaded that has all the core information I don't know how yet whether it's a QR code or something that be a to

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go look this is this is who I am not only this is my medical conditions but these are the things that can help me in

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these scenarios it's a big grand plan I'm not sure how I'm going to pull it off just yet I'm determined to because I

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can see the value in how it will help my boys so that's it we'll see how exciting

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I can't wait to see how it yeah how it develops it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you lastly some takeaway

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points is yeah for maybe pharmacist early in their career um that maybe

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are neurod Divergent themselves um yeah don't be afraid to I guess speak up um

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and um tell your yeah management team or um employers um you don't have to

24:13

disclose your um condition but yeah don't be afraid to to let them know what

24:20

your strengths are like that's actually a great thing as employers want to know that for those yeah pharmacists that um

24:28

employing people and you and you may know or may not know I'm just being mindful that um everyone is an

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individual and and by working towards their their strengths is a great thing I

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know you want to develop their weaknesses and um get them to grow like that's really important but you also

24:47

don't want to force someone too hard into things that they're not good at and

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not take advantage of the things that they are good at because as you said that then sometimes you can lose some really great people

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that's a really good take home for me and I think for people that don't know much about neurodiverse conditions just

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start reading about it knowledge is power um speak to people um like Yvette

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hit her up on LinkedIn and speak to her um there's a few other of us around as

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well don't be afraid to reach out and um yeah seek some advice from others and do

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that extra learning to really understand what it feels like for someone um with

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NE um diverent skills yeah absolutely add it to your CPD plan for sure even if

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you go right you know I want to learn a little bit more about ADHD it's great that you might know that you know

25:43

there's stimulants out there but what else do you know about it and how can you then put that learning into practice

25:48

and make make a difference and and you your eyes will open it's that penny drop moment you just go oh wow okay I

25:55

understand more now and and that level of compassion and understanding will will flow on and and your customers will

26:01

be ever grateful for it so um you've been listening to Your

26:08

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