Safe and responsible use of medicines among people with poor (health) literacy and migrants

Research shows that pharmacists have trouble recognising people with limited literacy (or low health literacy skills) and lack the techniques to help these patients.
In the coming years, Pharos will be working with the Dutch Association of Pharmacists (KNMP) to improve the safe use of medicines among semi-literate people, non-western migrants and people with limited health literacy.
The programme will include complementing the KNMP guidelines with subjects relating specifically to migrants and people with limited literacy. A toolkit will be developed for pharmacies to support the improvement of therapy compliance among migrants and people with limited literacy. Pharmacists will be better equipped to counsel these groups when issuing them with medicines. In addition and where relevant, the education and training schemes for pharmacy staff will be supplemented with knowledge on responsible medicine use among migrants and people with low literacy.