December 4, 2008
Weber recognized for contributions to psychiatric pharmacy
By Melinda Young
School of Pharmacy
The College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) has named the School of Pharmacy’s Stanley Weber the recipient of the 2009 Judith J. Saklad Memorial Lecture Award. This annual award honors a senior practitioner who demonstrates an ongoing dedication to the field of psychiatric pharmacy. It is named after the late Saklad, a clinical pharmacologist renowned for her work with children and adults with serious mental disorders.
Weber, associate dean for professional education and associate professor in the UW School of Pharmacy, said he is happy to be acknowledged for “some small contribution I have made over several years to the development of psychiatric pharmacy.”
He became interested in this discipline in the late 1970s. Soon after receiving his Pharm.D. from the University of Cincinnati, he took a position as a pharmacy clinician in a state psychiatric hospital with the University of Rhode Island.
“I was there for 14 years and I found psychiatric pharmacy fascinating,” he said. “The patients and their medication issues were challenging and interesting.”
Yet he and his staff faced multiple obstacles in trying to do their jobs, not the least of which were a lack of resources and funding. Weber, therefore, went in search of resources — seeking out colleagues nationally with whom he could collaborate.
An informal network of a few hundred practitioners formed. This group regularly met at conferences to talk about their situations and about treatment, education and research interests.
The network laid the foundation for what would eventually become CPNP. Today, the association has almost 1,000 members. It seeks to advance pharmacotherapy research for patients with psychiatric and neurologic disorders and to improve their care.
To be honored by an organization he helped found means a great deal, said Weber. The Saklad award pays tribute to his work advocating for patients, creating fellowship and residency programs in psychiatric pharmacy and collaborating with colleagues to advance the field.
Today, as associate dean for professional education in the School of Pharmacy, Weber still considers patient advocacy a primary goal. He focuses on ensuring that the School’s Pharm.D. curriculum emphasizes that pharmacy is a “high touch” discipline — where human interaction and the patient experience are of utmost importance.
Weber will accept his award and give a lecture at the CPNP annual meeting in Florida in April 2009.
