Deprescribing Initiatives Using Community Engagement (DICE) and Education (DICEE)
The Deprescribing Initiatives Using Community Engagement (DICE) project explored how public and healthcare professional community engagement strategies can be used to implement deprescribing into the routine care of patients. The research team worked with a Local Advisory Group to identify community needs and then co-developed a plan for a series of interactive public education sessions to build medication management capacity among older people in their community. The original grant was terminated early (as were all similar HSRF grants in Ontario) in July 2019. The research team and LAG hosted a single event in June 2019 to honour the commitment made to the community; a planning guide for this event, “Talking about Your Medications,” was produced. The research team received a grant from CABHI to carry out the originally planned face-to-face public education series in the spring of 2020 (DICEE). In light of COVID-19 restrictions, the research team delivered this program virtually in November 2020 in partnership with Living Healthy Champlain and in 2021 in partnership with the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care at Bruyère. The facilitator team used participant feedback to create an Implementation Guide and Facilitator’s Toolkit and to revise the Participant Workbook content.
On February 16, 2022, the research team held a support webinar where the team explained how healthcare providers could use these materials to easily deliver the “Talking About Medications” workshop series for people living in their communities and in long-term care. A recording of this webinar, as well as all the Implementation Guide, Facilitator’s Toolkit, Participant Workbooks and Workshop PowerPoint Presentations, are now available for people to view and download free of charge here.
Lead: Dr. Barbara Farrell, Bruyère Research Institute
Co-investigators: Dr. James Conklin, Dr. Lisa McCarthy, Dr. Lalitha Raman-Wilms
Contact: [email protected]
Funder (2017-2019): Government of Ontario, HSRF
Funder (2019-2021): Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), SPARK grant
Access the ‘Talking About Your Medications: A Community-Event Planning Guide’
Access the ‘Talking About Your Medications’ Workshop Materials
The following publications outline our community engagement findings and development of the workshop series:
Galley E, Farrell B, Conklin J, Howell P, McCarthy L, Raman-Wilms L. Using community engagement to initiate conversations about medication management and deprescribing in primary care. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 2022;15(1):Article 4.
Farrell B, Dilliott D, Richardson L, Conklin J, McCarthy L, Raman-Wilms L. “Talking about your medications” – a workshop series aimed at helping older adults participate in conversations about their medications. Canadian Pharmacists Journal 2022;155(2):86-92.
Farrell B, McCarthy L, Famiyeh I, Conklin J, Cranley L, Raman-Wilms L. Measuring the usefulness and impact of “Talking about Medications” workshops. Canadian Pharmacist Journal (letter to the editor) 2023;156(2):54.
Toenjes S, Deng A. Updated resources for “Talking about Medications” workshop. Canadian Pharmacists Journal (letter to the editor) 2022;155(2):78.
Conklin J, Farrell B, Dilliott D, Richardson L, McCarthy L, Raman-Wilms L. Community engagement in a disengaged world: development and implementing educational workshops on deprescribing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Pharmacists Journal 2023;156(1):8-13.
