Reducing medication-related harm in people living with dementia through community action: Development and testing of novel co-designed medication management resources across care settings

Poor medication management is one of the most common causes of hospital admission in people living with dementia, and is often avoidable. Multiple medications, multiple healthcare providers, and increasing cognitive and functional decline contribute to medication management challenges and medication-related harm. Transitions between different care settings is associated with high risk of medication-related harm, yet there are currently no resources in this setting to guide people living with dementia or their carers in medication management or shareddecision making. This project will educate, empower and support people with dementia and their carers to manage their medications safely and accurately by developing, evaluating, and testing co-designed medication management guidance resources. We will use a community-based partnership framework and engage with relevant consumer, healthcare and aged care stakeholders to identify and address stakeholder priorities for medication management resources. Key deliverables of this project will include both text-based and visual resources for use in the community and during the transition into aged care. Resources will be co-designed ensuring they are appropriate for people with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and will be translated into at least five languages other than English. This project is being conducted by an interdisciplinary team of early career researchers who are emerging leaders in the fields of medicine safety and dementia care, and is strongly supported by national and international experts in dementia care, medication safety and co-design. If effective, the partnership and framework evaluated in this project could be expanded to address future emerging medicine safety priority areas.