The goal of this project is to co-design English and French versions of a mailout that shares information about sedative use and to encourage people to access resources and discuss deprescribing with a healthcare professional. Mock-ups of mail outs have been created through consultation with patient partners on the research team, the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network Public Advisory Committee, and the research team members. These mockups are used as a starting point, where the format, layout, and content of these mailers will be entirely chosen by participants in the focus groups through discussion, priority exercises, and the theoretical framework of acceptability.
By developing mailouts with older adults and their families, we aim to create a final product that reaches a wide range of individuals and resonates with them in such a way that encourages them to access the booklets and subsequently speak with their healthcare provider about deprescribing. Project deliverables will include a deprescribing mailout advertisement, knowledge of the acceptability of a mailout to promote deprescribing, and potential public partners for future deprescribing research including support of a future CIHR grant application to determine whether these mailouts, a full booklet set, or standard of care are more effective in deprescribing across five provinces. This future study will also analyze whether these interventions are generalizable across provinces, regions (urban vs. rural), languages (French vs. English), age groups, or for sex or gender. The findings may also guide similar efforts for other commonly over prescribed PIMs, such as proton pump inhibitors.
Learn more about becoming a Patient/Public Partner for this study.