Watch this short video to hear Hazel Hawke’s daughter, Sue Pieters-Hawke, talk about the effect that reducing her mother’s medication had on her quality of life.

Sue and others are speaking in support of the Reducing Use of Sedatives (RedUSe) program. This was a Government funded initiative, developed and trialled initially in Tasmania in 2008, and expanded nationally from 2014 – 2016.

It promotes quality and appropriate use of sedatives, in particular antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, in residential aged care services in Australia, and assists with reducing use of these medications whenever possible.

The Commission, with Dr Juanita Breen who developed the program with the Wicking Institute and University of Tasmania, has now trained a small cohort of well credentialled and experienced pharmacists to implement RedUSe. These pharmacists will begin visiting aged care services in remote and very remote locations early in 2020 to offer training and support in reducing the use of sedatives in their services.

Watch:

Reducing the use of sedatives – video

An effective approach to decrease antipsychotic and benzodiazepine use in nursing homes: the RedUSe project (.pdf)

The RedUSe Executive Summary (.pdf)