23 March 2005

With more than 70% of all Australians taking medicines at any one time, National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) has launched its first national program for Italian Australians to help them better understand their medicines – “Get to know your medicines”.

Medicines are designed to help improve health, however medicines-related problems are a major concern and can impact heavily on the individual, their families and the health system. Approximately 140,000 hospital admissions per year may be related to problems with medicines. This is more than the combined number of admissions for asthma and heart failure.

The Italian “Get to know your medicines” program was guided by research with people of Italian background, by NPS and the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils’ of Australia (FECCA).

In this research consumers of medicines from Italian backgrounds reported reluctance to ask their GP or pharmacist questions about their medicines. The study also suggested a need for more information about where to get reliable information about medicines.

“It is your doctor who has to tell you why he is giving you the medicine. It is not up to you to ask….sometimes you just don’t know what to ask” said one research participant.

As part of the program, NPS has developed ‘Medimate’ – a bilingual information brochure in Italian and English, designed to help consumers better understand their medicines.

Medimate is a free practical guide that will help Italian Australians find, understand and use information about medicines more effectively. Medimate is a valuable resource and it is now available in Italian, Greek, Chinese, Vietnamese and English.

To make sure medicines are used appropriately Medimate advises people to ask their doctor and pharmacist questions about their medicines and tell them about their current health conditions and all medicines that they are taking.

To order free copies of Medimate in Italian visit www.nps.org.au and go to the consumer section.

NPS is an independent, non-profit organisation funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. The ‘Get to know your medicines’ Program is a joint program run by NPS in partnership with FECCA. The program brings together FECCA’s expertise as the peak, national body representing Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and NPS’s expertise as Australia’s peak, independent, education and information provider about medicines.