Be Medicinewise Week
The week of 19-25 August mark the ninth annual Be Medicinewise Week, an awareness campaign that the National Prescribing Service (NPS) Medicinewise run each year to highlight the quality use of medications. This year the focus was on knowing how to communicate and learn about medicines to get the most out of them - safely.
Australia’s pain burden is a burgeoning social and economic issue, increasing in prevalence as the population ages and chronic conditions rise. Medicines, especially analgesics, are an important part of the pain management tool kit. As many people living with chronic pain opt to self-medicate their condition, it is vital that they are able to understand their medication and the risks associated with it.
As part of Be Medicinewise Week, Painaustralia supported NPS MedicineWise in asking people to:
- know all the medicines you take and why you take them,
- understand the instructions of how to take a medicine,
- check with your health professional before starting a new medicine, and
- ask if you have any questions.
NPS MedicineWise has created a range of resources you can download and use to help spread the important messages of Be Medicinewise Week. The Be Medicinewise Week poster and Medicines list are available in English, Arabic, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, Croatian, Greek, Italian, Korean, Macedonian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Knowledgeable, empowered and supported consumers are critical to improving outcomes for people with pain and addressing opioid reliance and misuse, identified as a key goal of the National Pain Strategy. These consumers can seek out appropriate advice and treatment, better understand their pain and take the first step towards adopting self-management strategies that are proven to improve activity, reduce disability and keep pain to a minimum.
In this blog article, our CEO Carol Bennett shares more on learning the language of medicines.
Read the blog here.