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ARLINGTON, Va., August 12, 2019 – Allied Against Opioid Abuse (AAOA) and HealthyWomen released a new suite of resources to help educate women, in their role as consumers and caregivers, about prescription opioid abuse. AAOA and HealthyWomen’s partnership aims to help address the significant knowledge gap in understanding the rights, risks and responsibilities associated with prescription opioids, and reduce instances of prescription opioid misuse in communities nationwide.
“Women typically play the role of Chief Wellness Officer in their homes and keeping ourselves and our families healthy can be overwhelming,” said Beth Battaglino, RN, CEO of HealthyWomen, the nation’s leading independent, nonprofit health information source for women. “Providing women with the right tools and resources to safely manage how medications are administered within the home is crucial, especially given the epidemic of prescription opioid abuse in our country and how it disproportionately affects women.”
The AAOA-HealthyWomen Toolkit underscores the seriousness of the country’s prescription opioid abuse epidemic on families across the country and offers actionable steps for women — who make the majority of the healthcare decisions in the home — to take to ensure opioid medications are secured and out of reach when they are brought into the home. The toolkit includes the following resources:
“Education is essential to stemming the tide of prescription opioid abuse in our country, and we are proud to partner with HealthyWomen to increase awareness about the important role women play in helping reduce instances of opioid medications ending up in the wrong hands,” said John Parker, Senior Vice President of Communications for the Healthcare Distribution Alliance. “AAOA and its partners are committed to raising awareness among consumers, patients, caregivers and the medical community about the roles they play in preventing the misuse and abuse of prescription opioids.”
In partnership with stakeholders from across the healthcare supply chain, AAOA has developed a full suite of online resources to help educate patients, providers, pharmacists and the public about the rights, risks and responsibilities related to prescription opioid use. AAOA also worked with a team of physicians at The Johns Hopkins Hospital on an educational video to help patients prepare for and manage post-surgery pain.
For the medical community, AAOA partners with the PA Foundation on the national Pledge to Pause effort, which reminds providers of the importance of engaging with and educating their patients every time an opioid is prescribed. Additionally, AAOA and its national and state pharmacy partners developed a toolkit to help pharmacists educate patients and prescribers about safe use, storage and disposal of prescription opioids. Additional educational materials are available at www.AgainstOpioidAbuse.org/Act.
For press inquiries, contact press@againstopioidabuse.org.
About Allied Against Opioid Abuse
Allied Against Opioid Abuse is a national education and awareness initiative to help prevent abuse and misuse of prescription opioids. Founded by the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, the initiative is a collaborative effort with diverse partners across the pharmaceutical supply chain, as well as organizations that are experts in public health and healthcare, including Alliance for Aging Research, American Pharmacists Association, American Physical Therapy Association, BeMedWise, Caregiver Action Network, Gerontological Society of America, Healthcare Leadership Council, HealthyWomen, Men’s Health Network, Mental Health America, National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, National Association of Directors of Nursing Administration, National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities, National Community Pharmacists Association, National Transitions of Care Coalition, Pharmacy Technician Certification Board, and the PA Foundation. Our goal is to contribute to solving the opioid crisis in a meaningful way by educating patients about their rights, risks and responsibilities. To learn more, visit www.AgainstOpioidAbuse.org or follow us on Twitter: @AAOA_Tweets.
About HealthyWomen
HealthyWomen is the nation’s leading independent, nonprofit health information source for women. Our mission is to educate women to make informed health choices for themselves and for their families, providing objective, research-based health information to our audience. For 30+ years, millions of women have turned to HealthyWomen for answers to their most personal health care questions.
Nothing is more important to our health than access to competent and affordable care and the safety of our medications and health care delivery practices. HealthyWomen works to educate women about health policy issues in these and other areas. We recognize the importance of clinical trials and women’s health research, particularly the need for sex differences research, to improve women’s health. HealthyWomen advocates on behalf of women to ensure that women’s health is a primary focus of policy makers and advocacy groups. Our investment in developing science-based information and our effort to incorporate perspectives reflected by advances in research and technology will further our mission to provide women with relevant and accurate health resources. For more information, please visit www.HealthyWomen.org. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.