NPS MedicineWise encourages Australians to get to know the language of medicines during Be Medicinewise Week.
Running from August 19-25, the week constitutes an annual campaign to raise awareness about the quality use of medicines to assist health professionals and consumers get the most out of their medicines safely and effectively.
According to Steve Morris, NPS MedicineWise CEO and pharmacist, this year marks the ninth annual Be Medicinewise Week, which is the “organisation’s opportunity to bring quality use of medicines concepts to consumers through an interesting multifaceted multimedia campaign”.
Past campaigns have focused on Medicinewise families, medicine misuse, asking the right questions, and medicine use in particular groups like older people and children, says Mr Morris.
He adds that this year’s theme, ‘get to know the language of your medicines’, is an opportunity for pharmacists to help decode some of the more complicated aspects of medicines for consumers by educating them, as an example, about the importance of keeping a medicines list, knowing the active ingredient and asking a health professional questions.
Community and hospital pharmacists are traditionally strong supporters of the campaign and support Be Medicinewise messages, often displaying posters and medicines lists in their pharmacies or hosting Be Medicinewise Week events in their hospital or community.
“This year, pharmacists around Australia have ordered more than 300 printed campaign packs, including our posters and medicines lists in English and 10 additional community languages,” said Mr Morris.
“These resources are available to download and print from our website, so there’s still time to get involved in Be Medicinewise Week 2019.”
