Are your medicines working for you?
“Are your medicines working for you?” is an initiative designed to support more open conversations between patients and healthcare professionals about whether or not long-term medicines should continue to be prescribed.
The initiative was developed following a project funded by the AHSN NENC to explore the barriers to deprescribing in primary care.
The following video by the project lead, Gemma Donovan, introduces the different tools which have been developed for the initiative. Each of these are then available for download below.
or copy link: https://vimeo.com/464184488
Downloads
All the resources can be downloaded as a .zip file or individually using the links below. Simply click on the links or hover over the image, right click your mouse and ‘Save as’ to your folder.
Download all resources as a .zip file
Patient checklist
Designed to be printed as a double-sided A5 postcard which can be sent to patients in advance of a medication review appointment.
Download for the patient checklist
Clinician checklist
Three questions for clinicians to ask themselves and patients as part of a medication review. Available in three different formats:
Version for printing on a single sided A5 postcard
Digital image to use as screensaver or desktop image (standard) (widescreen)
Symptom trackers
Two versions of a symptom tracker have been produced. These are designed for patients to self-monitor their symptoms and document these for up to 28 days. There are instructions at the top and a blank space for clinicians to write down which symptoms they want the patient to record. There is also a space at the bottom to indicate when the symptom tracker will be reviewed. One version contains a blank space for each day, and the other also has a small visual analogue scale for each day.
Symptom tracker with blank spaces
Symptom tracker with visual analogue scale
Animation
An animation has been created to support use of the materials for use on waiting room screens:
Microsoft templates
To further support the visual identity of the ‘Are your medicines working for you?’ deprescribing initiative, the toolkit also contains branded Microsoft package templates. Two PowerPoint templates have been created and one Word template.
PowerPoint template in clinician facing pink
PowerPoint template in patient facing green
Word template in patient facing green
Social media and graphics
Graphics and short animations have also been created to support use of the materials through social media outlets, or for embedding into documents or websites. These are available below
Social media graphic (patient facing green) Social media graphic (clinician facing pink)
Social media animations 1 – Are your medicines working?
Social media animation 2 – It’s important to have your medicines reviewed
You can also download a copy of the full report for the project Deprescribing in Primary Care; Getting Started or the Report for Patients.
For more information about the project, or to provide any feedback you can contact Gemma Donovan, Academic Practitioner at NHS Sunderland CCG / University of Sunderland on [email protected]