Introduction: 16% of the world's 8 billion people, or more than 1.3 billion, are people with special needs or people with disabilities. Of these, there are unofficial studies that show that there are about 650 million people with disabilities in Asian countries. [1] One of the most common problems faced by people with special needs is that disability service organizations, especially pharmacies, do not have access to complete information on their necessary medications.
According to the 2019 data of the National Statistics Committee [4] in our country, 3.4 percent of the total population or 107.6 thousand are citizens with special needs. Article 1.1 of the Law "On the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" [5] provides for the equal rights of persons with disabilities to participate in social relations, to ensure and implement them, to provide an accessible environment, to create conditions, housing, public buildings, roads, public transport, and information., communication technology is included as being accessible to people with disabilities. However, health and pharmacy services for people with special needs are very challenging.
The main basis of this research work is to make pharmacy services easier for people with special needs, especially people with speech, hearing, visual, mental, and motor disabilities, and to identify and solve problems. Methods: The research was carried out in a one-moment model. Based on the General Department of Development of People with Disabilities, data was collected by questionnaire using the minimum sample size calculation, which was calculated as 478 people per 1000 population. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS-23 software.
Our survey was conducted between November to December 1, 2022 using a snapshot model. Processing of results was carried out using survey data processing. Conclusion
1. According to the 2019 data of the National Statistics Committee, 3.4 percent or 107.6 thousand of the total population of our country are citizens with special needs. This information has not been updated for 2021-2022.
Out of a total of 478 people in the survey, 54% were male, while 42.8% of the respondents were 20-30 years old. 48.8% of citizens use pharmacies independently, 42.4% with the help of a guardian, and 8.8% of other citizens use pharmacies. The lack of understanding of drug information on prescription forms affects the physician's prescription, drug information, visual and hearing impairments, and misunderstandings.
2. People with speech, hearing, visual, mental, and motor disabilities face the biggest problem in using the pharmacy. Therefore, it is a priority to make certain innovative changes in order to make pharmacy operation* equal to citizens. These include: Prescription forms can be read using technology such as Qr and AR on the phone, delivering medication instructions and information in audio form to people with visual and mental disabilities, providing more clear and understandable information to people with speech and hearing disabilities identifying medications for people with visual impairments, and using drugs correctly. We believe that suggestions and solutions are needed, such as placing names and instructions in braille on product labeling and packaging, implementing stairs and doors for people in wheelchairs or with mobility impairments in accordance with standards in all buildings, and providing seats for stairwells between floors. In most cases, it takes 10-20 minutes for people with disabilities to visit a pharmacy. Some citizens are experiencing delays in services for up to an hour. It can be seen that spending a lot of time to visit a pharmacy is difficult for citizens.
In order to solve this problem, under the supervision of a manager and a pharmacist, a post-graduate student of "Pharmacy" of the "University of Pharmaceutical Sciences" should be created to provide advice and information to citizens and reduce the burden.