![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/balgo-meds.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThousands of kilometres north of Perth, in the Kimberley region, a lone car is making its way along a red dirt road to one of Western Australia\u2019s most remote communities.<\/p>\n
The driver is pharmacist and Curtin alumna Hannah Mann, and she is heading to Balgo, population 359.<\/p>\n
Mann is the owner and founder of Kimberley Pharmacy Services (KPS), an award-winning community-centred pharmacy, focused on remote Indigenous health.<\/p>\n
With three branches, in Broome, Derby and Fitzroy Crossing, Mann spends much of her time on the road, travelling between the pharmacies and providing medication advice and assistance to dozens more communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving in a non-remote area, we take it for granted that we can walk into a pharmacy whenever we want if we\u2019re worried about our tablets,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut here, there are enormous access barriers and many people don\u2019t even understand what a pharmacist is, or does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diabetes and renal disease are two of the chronic conditions faced by her patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of dialysis and pre-dialysis patients which is really concerning,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor patients to start dialysis, they have to go to Perth, and then wait for a \u2018chair\u2019 to become available in the Kimberley. This means they have to wait for somebody to move, or sadly pass, before they can go home.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine if you had to leave your family, move somewhere culturally foreign, had no accommodation and no idea when you could go home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a huge decision for people to make, particularly older people who have such important roles in community. Choosing to leave is so tough and many patients don\u2019t \u2013 with terrible consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her role as pharmacist, Mann spends significant time one-on-one with patients, focusing on early intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be difficult for patients to understand the importance of taking their medication when they feel well. They can\u2019t see that they have bad kidneys or high blood pressure. That\u2019s where our pharmacy plays such an important role in explaining the benefit of taking preventative medication to our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mann firmly believes in the importance of consulting with the community and providing what her patients really need.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the business started, our goal has been to do remote pharmacy differently,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe collaborate with the community to work to find their actual needs and we acknowledge what those needs are and look after those specific requirements rather than trying to mould it into something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
She and her team recently changed the labels on their medications, after realising patients were confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the longest time in pharmacy, we used sunrise and sunset symbols to indicate if medication should be taken in the morning or at night,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what was horrendously obvious once it was pointed out to me by a patient, is that both symbols look fundamentally the same! And using a picture of the moon to indicate bedtime doesn\u2019t work either.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you live out bush and you live by the sunrise and sunset, the moon rising might not actually be at bedtime. It could be at 5pm. So we\u2019ve introduced a sunrise image for morning time, a bright sun in the sky for midday, and a bed for bedtime. It was an easy change and we\u2019ve had really positive feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The community-focused approach of KPS has attracted national recognition. In 2015, the Broome branch was named Pharmacy of the Year by The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the industry\u2019s most prestigious honour. Mann was also named First Amongst Equals in the Business News 40under40 awards earlier this year for her extraordinary contribution to remote Indigenous health.<\/p>\n
But the ambitious pharmacist has no plans to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy long-term vision for KPS is to build even stronger relationships with Aboriginal health practitioners,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to create a workforce of local experts in Aboriginal communities to be the medication specialists when we\u2019re not there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mann says she was inspired to study pharmacy at Curtin after witnessing the positive influence of a friend\u2019s pharmacy in suburban Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always wanted a career helping people. Seeing the impact his pharmacy had was a pivotal moment for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She found the practical components of her pharmacy degree rewarding and initially pictured a career working as a clinical pharmacist in a metropolitan hospital.<\/p>\n
But it was her final student placement in Broome that would reset her career trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t gone to Broome in my fourth year, I would not have ended up working in Aboriginal health,\u201d she says emphatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked with an organisation called KAMS (Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service) and visited the Aboriginal Health Service in Derby. Within two weeks I knew I wanted to relocate to Broome. I couldn\u2019t imagine working anywhere else now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mann has been based in Broome for thirteen years now and has forged strong links with the local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a bit of getting used to, but now I really enjoy the small town environment,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that people stop me outside of work hours to talk about their health. It was strange at first to be \u2018available\u2019 all the time, even when I was in the supermarket doing my grocery shopping, but now I love it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a really important part of being a pharmacist, regardless of whether you\u2019re in your pharmacy or not, is being accessible to your community.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Back in Balgo, Mann pulls up to the local health clinic. She has been here before and hopes people will remember she is coming.<\/p>\n
A young man bursts into the clinic. He wants to know where \u201cthe medicines lady\u201d is. He\u2019s worried and has questions about his tablets. Mann can\u2019t wipe the smile off her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I do what I do,\u201d she beams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of kilometres north of Perth, a lone car is making its way along a red dirt road to one of WA\u2019s most remote communities. The driver is pharmacist and Curtin alumna Hannah Mann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2670,"featured_media":7786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-7785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Graduate Snapshot","content":"
Name<\/strong>: Hannah Mann<\/p>\n Role<\/strong>: Managing Partner and Pharmacist, Kimberley Pharmacy Services<\/p>\n Studied:<\/strong> Bachelor of Pharmacy<\/p>\n Graduated:<\/strong> 2006<\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours)","qualification":"Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours)","link":"https:\/\/study.curtin.edu.au\/offering\/course-ug-bachelor-of-pharmacy-honours--bh-pharm\/","description":"","faculty":"Health Sciences"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/150128-Pharmacy-Guild-Broome-655-edited-2.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Anne","last_name":"Griffin-Appadoo","display_name":"Anne Griffin-Appadoo"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 22:18:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7785"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=7785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}