27 April 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 Australians from Non-English speaking backgrounds to help them better understand their 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 “Get to know your medicines” program for multicultural communities was guided by research undertaken with community groups, by NPS and the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA).

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

“I never ask my doctor anything I just say okay and then I do what I want.” said one research participant,

“The tablets that you can buy without a prescription don’t have side effects, that’s why I take them”

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

Medimate is a free practical guide that will help consumers find, understand and use information about medicines more effectively. Medimate is a valuable resource and pharmacists can use Medimate when providing counselling to patients about medicines.

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 the medicines that they are taking.

To order free copies of Medimate in Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, Italian and English visit www.nps.org.au/consumers.

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.