inTervieW - Green Cross Publishing

22
PINIoN
opinion vIew froM Above
Pharmacy
listening service
There was a time when Terry Maguire pitied those
who studied the social sciences but all that has
changed now that he has become a de facto social
worker.
as a career I never considered
social work, as a student I pitied
as misguided those studying the
social sciences and as a graduate
I worried for those condemned to
a life in the social services since
in later life they were most likely to contemplate
suicide on a weekly if not daily basis. So it has
come as somewhat of a surprise that I now find
I have by default ended up performing a job
that is more social work than anything else. I
am a case worker for the manic, the confused
and downright bewildered and the surprising
thing is I rather like being the listening ear, the
unpaid community counsellor. It’s all part of a
pharmacist’s job it seems and there are rewards;
my customers can prove the most colourful
threads in the rich weave that forms the beautiful
fabric of life. let’s meet a few of them; those
whom I see more regularly than most since their
GP considers them possessing more than one
day’s supply of medicines a major clinical risk.
“
leticia...
removed the
toilet-roll from its
holder and shoved
it over the smoke
detector, something
she tells me she had
seen in a movie.
angela’s aspiraTions
Angela is convinced her daughter will become
a famous paediatrician and I am supporting her
in this belief since belief is the best she can have
now that the child has been removed from her
by the real social services. In mid-August she let
me know, to my delight I must say, that her little
darling had obtained 9 A* in her GCSEs. She has
recently revised this story to an aspiration for
these heady grades when the exams are taken
in two years time. This may prove difficult since
Angela’s daughter is only taking six subjects
at GCSE and is seldom found in her academic
establishment. The little angel is difficult, wilful
and as vicious as a burning wasps’ nest and I feel
genuine remorse for the foster family who have
got her; nothing could pay this family.
And then there’s leticia. leticia’s moods swing
more than a pendulum clock. Her mental health
is indeed poor but when she’s manic – and if you
don’t have to live with her – she can be great fun.
She changes GP more than I change the tyres
on my car. Her current GP is keeping a sensible
distance but she claims to be deeply in love with
him and she believes he secretly reciprocates her
feelings.
leticia has just been in court charged with
smoking on a flight. She could not last without a
cigarette during the three hour flight time from
Benidorm, indeed she had great trouble getting
through the first hour so she got into the aircraft
toilet and before she lit up she removed the
toilet-roll from its holder and shoved it over the
smoke detector, something she tells me she had
seen in a movie. This cunning plan failed and the
stewards were quickly battling against the door.
She refused to come out claiming to be unwell.
On arriving at Belfast International Airport, the
captain, using some of the extensive library of
emergency anti-terrorist legislation available to
him, had her arrested and charged.
The judge was particularly unhappy with her
behaviour and handed down a £300 fine but she
rages against this perceived injustice to anyone
who will listen and most mornings lately that is
me.
respecTFul lisTening
Sean has been smoking for 20 years and has been
trying to stop for 19 years. He finds stopping
smoking easy he has, like Mark Twain, found
it so easy to stop he has done it 50 times. It’s
staying stopped that seems to be his problem.
He has obtained so much nRT from his GP in the
last 6 months that he is now trying to talk me
into buying his unused
nRT stock back at a
discount.
And then
there’s Steven
who, to
his credit,
overcame a
significant
alcohol
problem about
10 years ago.
When his elderly
terry M AGuIre
issue 10 volume 12 • novemBeR 2010
Terry Maguire owns two
pharmacies in Belfast.
He is an honorary
senior lecturer at the
School of Pharmacy,
the Queen’s University
of Belfast. His research
interests include
the contribution of
community pharmacy
to improving public
health.
aunt, with whom he lived and cared for, was in
the final stages of Alzheimer’s, he was refused
respite care. So he simply walked out leaving
the front door open and from a phone box in the
centre of Belfast rang the police telling them he
was a concerned neighbour and was reporting
himself (Steven) missing and telling the police
that something needed to be done for the old
dear who would soon be wandering the streets.
He turned up two weeks later with a tan and
reclaimed his aunt from the geriatric ward of
the local hospital. Since her death he has tried
several times to get, as he keeps telling me, “his
career going”. Firstly, he decided to become
a sculptor and bought a second hand furnace
that he set up in his small living room. He made
twisted iron designs until the furnace burned a
hole through the floor into which it collapsed
and where it remains in situ to this day. He also
had a go at sculpturing tree stumps but now-adays
he is trying to become a writer and insists
I read the copious rubbish he produces. These
are ostensibly short-stories about old Belfast and
its great characters but, from what I have read, it
seems he merely plagiarises story-lines from the
nightly TV soaps.
But to them all, and may more, I will continue
to respectfully listen, as all pharmacists do. I have
become convinced that listening is the glue that
retains a semblance of civilisation within our
fragile communities. As the credit crunch bites
deeper north and South there will
be an even greater need
for more respectful
listening.