The Federation of Chinese Associations (FCA) Victoria embarked on its ambitious ‘Safe Use of Medicines Project’ in early April 2005. The project involved 10 seminars for Chinese migrants in a variety of locations throughout Melbourne. It was funded with a small grant from the Multicultural Program, which is part of the Community Quality Use of Medicines (CQUM) Program run by the National Prescribing Service (NPS).

The FCA is an umbrella body of 28 Chinese organisations in Victoria. Its main goals are to help recently arrived Chinese migrants settle into Australian society as quickly as possible.

Much of the FCA’s work is conducted through its Social Welfare Centre, which helps over 1000 clients each year. The centre runs English language courses, and helps clients with family relationship, housing, health, education, employment and legal issues.

In 2004, the Centre received an award for facilitating English language study and encouraging Chinese migrants to participate in community activities and avoid social isolation.

The seeds for the ‘Safe Use of Medicines Project’ began in May 2004. At that time, the Coordinator of the Social Welfare Centre, Ms Junxi Su, was involved in the research that informed the development of the Multicultural Program. She was also involved in developing the Chinese version of the Medimate booklet, the NPS booklet about using medicines wisely and safely.

The Social Welfare Centre saw the project as a way of helping Chinese migrants learn about the importance of using medicines safely and effectively, so they could improve their well-being and lead a healthier life.

The project was aimed at newly arrived Chinese migrants aged 20 – 80. The first seven seminars attracted 20 –100 people each, giving a total of nearly 300 people. It was anticipated that 450 people would attend the 10 seminars.

Each seminar lasted about 45 minutes, and was followed by light refreshments. Ms Junxi Su and Ms Betty Bai, another worker from the Social Welfare Centre, conducted the seminars in Mandarin and Cantonese. They used resources provided by the NPS to help community groups run medicines events for consumers. These included the bilingual Chinese Medimate booklet and the Get to Know Your Medicines Kit. The Medimate booklet, in particular, proved very helpful, because it gave Chinese people culturally appropriate information in their own language.

The seminars covered aspects of the quality use of medicines as they relate to the Australian – Chinese community. In particular, they focused on sharing medicines with family and friends, and doctor patient communication.

The presenters told participants about the possible ill-effects of sharing western medicines with family and friends, and tried to persuade them not to do so.

They also advised participants to be frank with their doctors about their health and illness, any relevant social and family matters, and their use of medicines. In particular, they strongly encouraged participants to tell their doctors and pharmacists about all the medicines they were taking: both their traditional Chinese medicines and their western medicines.

The feedback from participants was very positive, and they were glad to have been able to attend. Many participants indicated they would like more such seminars, so they could learn more about the safe use of medicines and the Australian health system. One of the most common quotes was, ‘You should hold more seminars like this one, because we really want to know more about the rules of medicine use in Australia’.

Download free copies of the Medimate booklet in English, Chinese, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese and the Get to Know Your Medicines Kit or order them from the consumer section the NPS website.