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Community Update 14Community Update 14

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July 08

Keep up-to-date with community Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) initiatives.

National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) and other organisations actively engage with the community to encourage the Quality Use of Medicines (QUM). QUM advocates selecting management options wisely, choosing suitable medicines if they are considered necessary, and using medicines safely and effectively. QUM is a central objective of Australia's National Medicines Policy.

If you would like to reproduce Community Update information and articles please contact us.

In this issue:

News

Events

Links to other helpful NPS publications

Free information from NPS

News

NPS wins Gold Quill Award: A big thank you to community partners

NPS has won a prestigious international Gold Quill Award for the 2007 Get to know your medicines and Generic medicines are an equal choice national awareness campaigns. The Award for Excellence in Communication Management — Multi-Audience was presented by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) at an awards ceremony in New York on 23 June 2008.

NPS CEO Dr Lynn Weekes said, 'Winning the award is an incredible achievement. I am immensely proud of the NPS staff who were involved in the campaign but would also like to acknowledge the pivotal role our partner organisations played in helping us to communicate these important medicines messages'.

Partner organisations included: the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, the Council on the Ageing (COTA), the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), Medicare Australia and a range of internal working groups comprising consumer, academic and health professionals. This is an example of a consumer-led campaign having strong impact.

Conducted from August to December 2007, the generic medicines campaign targeted senior Australians with chronic conditions and was aimed at raising their confidence and understanding of generic medicines with a focus on safety, quality and choice. The integrated campaign included a range of strategies such as television advertising, a phone help line, printed resources, website and community information sessions. It also explained the principles of quality use of medicines (QUM).

NPS was chosen from 1040 entries across 30 countries. Congratulations to all of the community groups who helped make this campaign so successful. Read the media release about our win.  

Get to know your medicines: Teaching resource available for teachers of English as a second language

A free teaching resource has been produced for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers to promote the safe and wise use of medicines within culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

The resource is part of the Get to know your medicines project run by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) and the National Prescribing Service (NPS). It was developed with the help of Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) Victoria for adult ESL teachers but can also be used by community organisations running interactive health promotion activities.

The Get to know your medicines teaching resource consists of six readers, an activity workbook and an audio CD. Activities provide practice in comprehension, listening, speaking, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing.

To order free copies of the resource please contact us.

National Medicines Symposium, Canberra: 500-plus delegates, packed scientific program

Held over four days, 14–16 May, at the National Convention Centre in Canberra the 2008 biennial National Medicines Symposium is being hailed as the best yet. With a packed scientific program, more than 500 delegates and three highly regarded international speakers the Symposium helped to extend the dialogue around the quality use of medicines in Australia.

Highlights included presentations by:

  • Professor Rachael Elliott (University of Nottingham) — delivering a white paper titled 'Health policy: helping or hindering Quality Use of Medicines?'
  • Jean R Slutsky (US Department of Health & Human Services) — discussing 'An ageing world: implications for QUM'
  • Professor Anita Hardon (University of Amsterdam) — sharing information about
    'The place of medicines in society'.

Other hot topics included: projections of a crippling shortage of healthcare workers by 2020, children taking adult medications, Consumer Medicine Information leaflets and some common misconceptions about complementary medicines. Journalist Geraldine Doogue was the Master of Ceremonies at the Symposium dinner and Senator Jan McLucas presented awards to winners of the Quality Use of Medicines Awards.

Quality Use of Medicines Awards: And the winners are … !

Every second year individuals and groups doing extraordinary work in the area of quality use of medicines are recognised at the National Quality Use of Medicines Awards, which coincides with the National Medicines Symposium. In 2008, the calibre of entries into the awards was so high a number of highly commended prizes were also awarded.

The 2008 winners of the Community QUM Awards are:

  • Winner: Good Medicines Better Health Pilot Project, run by NPS in partnership with the peak body National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (CEO Dea Delaney Thiele), and the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia (CEO Mary Buckskin). The pilot sites are the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Port Lincoln Aboriginal Health Service and Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council. Accepted by Ms Michele Robinson.
  • Highly commended: The Seniors Quality Use of Medicines National Peer Education Program administered by the COTA Partnership and COTA Alliance. Accepted by Ms Debra Petrys.

For details of winners in the health organisation, media (general), media (trade), student and poster categories please see our media release.

Adverse Medicine Events Line: Now available — new consumer brochure and resources

A new Adverse Medicine Events Line brochure and fridge magnet is now available. Order these free resources.

The Adverse Medicine Events Line (AME Line) is an avenue the general public can use to report and discuss adverse experiences that may be related to medicines. Staffed by pharmacists, the AME Line provides independent, accurate, evidence-based information. Talking to an AME Line pharmacist can help identify whether adverse experiences are medicine-related. 

Consumers can call the AME Line on 1300 134 237 Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm EST for the cost of a local call. Talk to a pharmacist and discuss any side effects that might be due to:

  • Prescription medicines
  • Over-the-counter medicines (e.g. pain relievers and cold medication)
  • Complementary medicines (vitamins, minerals, herbal and natural medicines).

Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) tender advisory team established

The NPS is part of the tender advisory team for Investigating CMI (I-CMI), a collaborative project between the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the University of Sydney and a consortium of international researchers. Led by Dr Parisa Aslani, a senior lecturer in Pharmacy at the University of Sydney and a practising community pharmacist, the project aims to evaluate the effectiveness and best-practice delivery of CMIs to help consumers understand the medicines they take.

The project is part of the Research and Development Program funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing as part of the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement, and managed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. More information about the I-CMI project can be found at www.guild.org.au.

Profile: Faces in the Community — Mrs Diana Aspinall, Consumer representative

Diana Aspinall, Consumer respresentativeThis is the third article in this series profiling members of the NPS Community Quality Use of Medicines (CQUM) Working Group. The working group comprises health professionals, consumers, government and health promotion representatives, and provides strategic advice about reaching consumers to effectively share program information and messages about the best use of medicines.

Mrs Diana Aspinall is a registered nurse with more than 30 years experience in community health management and practice. She also has a tertiary qualification in health promotion strategic planning. Diana is one of six consumer representatives nominated by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia to sit on the CQUM Working Group. She has been a volunteer director with Arthritis NSW for the past five years, and is chairperson of the Chronic Illness Alliance of NSW.

After attending the 2005 'New Perspectives' International Conference on self-management and patient-centred care in Canada, she co-authored a program with Carol Barnes called “Moving On”. Moving On is a self-management program for people with a chronic illness which is being evaluated by the University of New South Wales. Arthritis NSW worked in partnership with NPS to develop the session in the program called “Getting the most out of your medicines” and provided evaluation expertise and funding.

She says her interest in medicines and health began in the late 1950s while she was doing her nursing training and has been coloured in recent years by her work with Arthritis NSW.

'I am passionate about making a contribution to my fellow human beings. I think you need to contribute to the community you are part of. Working with Arthritis NSW, one of my current interests is medicine mismanagement with older people. I understand that it affects a large proportion of the population and want to do what I can to reduce its impact.'

Diana has been a member of various medicines committees, including a QUM Arthritis program development group at Adelaide University, and has been a key member of, or driving force in, the development of various programs around self-care and community development health promotion. She is also on a Pharmacy Guild advisory panel in relation to collecting information from consumers about S2 medicines.

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Events

The Common cold needs common sense not antibiotics campaign: 2008 launch

Phase one of the annual NPS Common colds campaign is now underway and phase two will commence in late July / early August. August is the peak month for antibiotic prescribing in Australia. Although antibiotics do not help a cold, people still ask for them and the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria continues to be a national issue.

This year, a new advertising campaign will run in July/August featuring characters Lucy and Brenda dealing with the 'drama' of common colds in the office. The advertising was tested with 18- to 34-year-old women who tend to request antibiotics — which kill bacteria — for illnesses that are viral. Antibiotics do not work against viruses. Alison Marcus and Dr John De Vries of the NPS Community Quality Use of Medicines Working Group are providing input and advice to the program.

At the same time, children’s favourite, Harvey the Wombat, continues to be an ambassador for common colds quality use of medicines messages in young children, at schools and with childcare services. A new children's book written by the students of Litchfield Christian School in Bees Creek NT, titled Don't spread it!, will feature on the new NPS website.

There are updated recommendations this year for treating common colds and also additional information about the use of herbal and natural therapies.

You can help by:

  • ordering brochures to circulate with your own regular communications
  • using our articles about colds in your newsletters
  • giving Harvey the Wombat colouring-in pictures to children to take home
  • displaying posters on notice boards and your sign-in area.

To order these free materials visit the common colds website and click on the most relevant tab e.g. workforce, children’s services etc.

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Links to other helpful NPS publications

MedicinesTalk — articles to use in your newsletters  

Did you know that you can use MedicinesTalk articles in your newsletters?

Simply reproduce the article in full and include acknowledgment of NPS and the relevant issue date: e.g. 'Reproduced with permission, National Prescribing Service, MedicinesTalk <issue month and year>'.

The winter edition of MedicinesTalk is now available. You can read about:

  • The main ways to treat and beat depression and when they might be appropriate.
  • A guide to using antidepressants.
  • Some of non-drug treatments and strategies you can use to help yourself recover more quickly from depression.
  • Where to go if you want information or support for depression.
  • How to help people from different cultural backgrounds learn about medicines and how to use them safely.

Read the latest edition and find back issues on the MedicinesTalk web page. You can opt in to receive hard copies of future issues of MedicinesTalk and other free NPS information by visiting the NPS online catalogue.

Medicine Update — information about a selection of new medicines  

The latest consumer publication from NPS, Medicine Update, provides information for people who are considering a new medicine, or have had a medicine suggested or prescribed for them and want to know more about it. It covers a selection of new medicines and medicines recently listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

When medicines are new, less is known about their expected benefits and possible harms than for medicines that have been available for some time. Medicine Update provides access to the available evidence to help people decide if a new medicine is right for them.

Current topics include:

Your support in making Medicine Update available to the public will help create greater awareness of the quality use of medicines. You could post a PDF version on your website and mention it in your newsletter. Medicine Update is currently only available online. However, if you would like a limited print run, we are happy to discuss your requirements.

For a copy of the current editions, or to register to receive a copy, go to the Medicine Update web page.

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Free information from NPS

Download a summary of resources and NPS order form

NPS has many other free resources for use by community groups and health professionals.

To view and order NPS's extensive range of medicines information resources, go to NPS website catalogue.

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Follow these links to subscribe or unsubscribe from Community Update.

National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) is an independent, non-profit organisation for Quality Use of Medicines. We provide accurate, balanced, evidence-based information and services to help people choose if, when and how to use medicines to improve their health and wellbeing. We are member-based and work in partnership with health professionals, government, pharmaceutical industry and consumers. NPS is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

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Date published: 2008-07-01 00:00:00

Reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the date of creation. This information is not intended as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified health professional. Health professionals should rely on their own expertise and enquiries when providing medical advice or treatment. Where permitted by law, NPS disclaims all liability (including for negligence) for any loss, damage or injury resulting from reliance on or use of this information. Read our full disclaimer.

References to brands should not be taken as an endorsement by NPS.