Yvette Anderson, clinical accredited pharmacist in Bendigo, talks to the AJP Podcast’s Carlene McMaugh about her lived and professional experience with neurodivergence, non-traditional pharmacist roles and imposter syndrome.

The hospital pharmacist , who has also worked in the community, aged care and consultancy sectors, is the creator of The Spectrum Pharmacist and was the winner of the PSA’s 2022 Shark Tank contest for her work on her “passion project,” The Spectrum Pharmacist’s Neurodiverse Squad, as well as Victorian Pharmacist of the Year that year.

“I have three sons, my eldest and youngest are both on the spectrum,” she tells McMaugh, explaining how she has found there was a lot of information – not always factual – out there for patients and their loved ones about neurodivergence.

“I was getting more and more questions about medications and what other evidence-based practices to use,” she said, perhaps because she and her family were open about her children’s diagnoses.

And she has some advice for pharmacists who are keen to find their own niche and branch out beyond traditional roles.

“I don’t think at the moment in a traditional sense pharmacists are utilising all the skills that we have, whether you’re in community or aged care or hospital, we’ve got so much more to give as part of that really important member of that health care team,” she says, saying this became obvious when talking to neurodiverse squad members who had asked where pharmacists sat in multidisciplinary teams.

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