National Grassroots Campaign Delivers
Urgent Medicine Safety Message

A Report from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Women's Health

Promoting Safe Use of Medicine

During October 1999 the United States will be blanketed with an important health promotion campaign led by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women's Health (OWH) and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS). The award-winning campaign, entitled Women's Health: Take Time to Care (TTTC), targets women with an urgent message: "Use Medicines Wisely." By participating, your organization can play a key role in helping reach tens of millions of people with potentially life-saving information.

Did you know that up to half of all people who use medication don't do so as directed? The consequences include increases in hospitalizations, nursing home admissions and deaths. Altogether, medication noncompliance is estimated to cost over $76 billion each year.

Medicine used incorrectly poses a particular threat to women, who are the majority of users of medicines and frequently, as caregivers, administer them to family members. TTTC has four key messages:

Since its inception in 1997, "My Medicines" brochures have reached over 1.5 million people through more than 1,000 grassroots events across the country. Now, due to overwhelming public response, the campaign has grown beyond the grassroots to truly national proportions. By delivering "Use Medicines Wisely" messages through your organization's existing state and local networks, your organization can help amplify the impact of our campaign to reach women in thousands of communities nationwide.

From Pilot Test to Broad Success

In 1997, FDA/OWH piloted TTTC in Hartford, Connecticut and Chicago, Illinois. From the beginning, the strategy was to maximize OWH's impact by recruiting grassroots partners and leveraging their resources. In each city, OWH staff initiated partnerships with local health and social service organizations, pharmacies, senior centers, religious congregations, universities, women's groups, workplaces and many others to organize and conduct a full week of TTTC activities.

Originally, we expected the two-city pilot campaign to distribute a total of 30,000 campaign materials. But partner support and public response far exceeded expectations, and we distributed 235,000.

The encouraging results in Hartford and Chicago led to TTTC's expansion in 1998. Enthusiasm spread rapidly, creating a powerful "domino effect" as more organizations got involved. Last year, with staff support from FDA Public Affairs Specialists and numerous partner organizations, a week of TTTC activities was held in 14 cities, three rural empowerment zones and Indian reservations in 19 states.

To increase the campaign's reach, FDA/OWH partnered with NACDS. More than 30 of the organization's member chains printed and distributed TTTC materials through over 6,000 local outlets. Many stores provided pharmacists to speak at local TTTC events and helped advertise program activities. Moreover, stores in eight cities that did not even have a TTTC campaign took the initiative to conduct their own events.

By the end of 1998, with the help of NACDS and our local participating organizations, OWH delivered "My Medicines" brochures to an estimated 1.5 million people. TTTC fostered relationships in many cities among local groups who had never worked together before. Through these new affiliations, local groups more effectively collaborated to improve the health and well being of residents in their communities. But so much more remains to be done . . .

What Worked Best in 1998

Our success in 1998 was primarily due to energetic, grassroots collaboration among FDA's field staff and our participating organizations. While OWH provided training manuals, talking points, consumer brochures and promotional materials, the FDA field staff and local participating organizations coordinated all logistics and implemented all activities.

Generally, we found participating organizations most willing to contribute by incorporating TTTC presentations or brochure distribution into previously scheduled programs, meetings and events. In fact, our participating organizations distributed approximately 90% of all brochures and many are still fulfilling requests for more.

While brochure distribution was the easiest activity for most participating organizations to undertake, according to summary reports from FDA field staff, the most successful TTTC activities featured pharmacists and other health professionals interacting with the community in workshops, health fairs and brown-bag lunches. We believe interactive events are most instructive and memorable.

In addition to distributing materials and organizing events, participating organizations engaged in a wide range of creative activities, including:

• Translating TTTC materials and giving presentations in Spanish, Cantonese, Russian, Hmong, and other languages
• Enabling pharmacists and other health experts to appear on local radio and television call-in shows to answer medication questions from a broad audience.
• Performing skits to illustrate common habits which may cause problems for seniors.

Limitations and Lessons Learned

Although each participating city deemed the 1998 campaign a success, several factors limited the overall reach and effectiveness. For 1999, adjustments will be made:

1. Rather than having different cities hold their TTTC campaigns at different times of the year, all cities will now conduct the campaign during October 1999 to maximize momentum and concentrate emphasis.
2. TTTC was previously confined to locations with FDA field staff, except for two cities whose health departments acted in the place of those staff. This year the campaign will occur coast-to-coast, so that hundreds of cities and millions of women will hear our message.
3. In many cities in 1998, TTTC did not receive the media attention it merited. This year we will have a national media campaign, which will include television, electronic and print media.
4. Finally, in 1998, TTTC events generated the most response among partners already engaged in health promotion, including clinics, health centers, hospitals, universities and pharmacy and nursing professional organizations. In 1999, we will target these groups and expand our outreach activities to large employers of women.

Even without these improvements, all parties involved in the 1998 campaign--including the public--expressed a strong interest in continuing the program on a larger scale. By co-sponsoring a vastly expanded campaign in 1999, NACDS and OWH will now be able to deliver our messages to women throughout the country, building on the lessons learned during 1998.

1999: Targeting Select National Partners

For 1999, FDA/OWH will work primarily at the national level by recruiting national participating organizations who will reprint TTTC materials and coordinate activities through their own networks of state and local members.

NACDS is a classic example. Participants among its member companies will expand the campaign to over 20,000 chain pharmacies in hundreds of cities and rural locations nationwide. These outlets will print and distribute "My Medicines" brochures and join interactive community events whenever possible.

OWH and NACDS are dividing the 1999 campaign coordinating responsibilities to draw upon each other's strengths. OWH will oversee development of all campaign materials and will recruit national participating organizations, focusing on those whose missions and typical activities naturally fit with TTTC. These include:

• Hospitals and clinics
• Universities, particularly pharmacy schools
• Health-related nonprofit organizations
• Independent pharmacies
• Women's groups
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Pharmaceutical benefits managers
• Senior centers

NACDS will not only encourage participation among its own members, but also apply its expertise and resources to develop various program enhancements, such as:

• A video for use in local presentations to ensure message consistency
• A national media effort
• An evaluation to help determine TTTC’s impact on consumer behavior

Our goal: During October 1999, OWH, NACDS and our national participating organizations plan to distribute 5 million brochures nationwide and reach millions of women with TTTC messages through a variety of venues and media. No other organization is doing a comparable national campaign on safe medicine use.

Help Us Spread the Message

After two highly successful years of grassroots activities, OWH and NACDS are now poised to elevate TTTC to the level of national consciousness. But we can't do it alone.

National organizations such as yours are vital to the campaign's success. Most importantly, we've made your participation easy. Your organization can simply incorporate TTTC into the work you're already doing. FDA provides a disk of campaign materials that you can readily print and distribute.

Help us help others to "Use Medicines Wisely" by joining the 1999 Take Time To Care campaign. For more information on TTTC and how to become a participating organization, call the FDA Office of Women's Health at (301) 827-0350.

Additional Information:

TTTC Materials Developed and Participating Organizations in 1998

TTTC Participating Pharmacies in 1998

TTTC Activities in 1998

Take Time to Care Home Page   |   Office of Women's Health Home Page   |   FDA Home Page

FDA/Office of Women's Health
Hypertext updated by clb 2000-APR-04.