14 October 2008

The National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) and Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) are working together to address preventable medicine-related harms for seniors from specific language groups, by running a series of workshops starting in October 2008.

When prescribed and used properly, medicines can help improve health. However, contrary to popular belief, there are also risks involved in using all medicines, including prescription, over-the-counter and traditional medicines. These risks are heightened for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) senior Australians, particularly those with low English language proficiency and literacy levels.

Informed by recent research, NPS and FECCA are working together to raise awareness about medicines, focusing on seniors from Italian and Chinese backgrounds through a tailored Get to know your medicines national awareness campaign. The campaign includes various elements such as radio advertising and interviews as well as community-based, in-language educational seminars.

“Much medicine-related harm is preventable,” said NPS Deputy CEO, Ms Karen Kaye. “If the seminars we are running for Chinese and Italian seniors prove to be a success and are appropriate for other language groups we hope to work with other ethno-specific organisations in 2009,” she said.

Each year approximately 400,000 Australians experience problems related to using medicines. These problems include side effects, medicine sensitivities, allergic reactions, negative interactions between medicines or foods, and prescribing or dispensing the wrong medicine for a particular health condition. The physical consequences of these problems range from feeling unwell to permanent disability or death and result in over 140,000 people being admitted to hospital each year.

NPS and FECCA work together to promote the safe and wise use of medicines by culturally and linguistically diverse communities. As part of this work, from October 2008, Chinese and Italian organisations across Australia are running community seminars for Mandarin, Cantonese and Italian-speaking seniors about using medicine safely and wisely. The seminars will include practical tips for use at home.

“By working with these organisations to run in-language community seminars we hope to assist these seniors to identify the risks involved in using medicines and to provide them with information to help reduce these risks,” said FECCA Chairperson, Voula Messimeri.

People interested in taking part in the seminars can contact the following organisations:

Italian Seminars

Chinese Seminars

For more information on the work of NPS and FECCA with CALD communities, please visit the NPS website – www.nps.org.au

ENDS

NPS is an independent, non-profit organisation for Quality Use of Medicines funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing