The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7212 p241
24 August 2002

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New Forest scheme teaches school children about medicines

PRIMARY school children in the New Forest Primary Care Trust area are being taught about medicines and asthma as part of a new pilot scheme.

Dr Brian Curwain, chief pharmacist at New Forest PCT, visited South Baddesley primary school, near Lymington, Hampshire, before the end of the summer term and spoke to around 60 children.

Dr Curwain told The Journal that the children had been keen to talk about medicines. "Our aim was to explain the basics about medicines, who makes them, where they come from and what they do. We talked about the number of prescriptions issued each year and how common medicine taking is. We hope that explaining this might avoid the stigmatisation that young children who have to take medicines when at school can suffer. In addition, we thought it would be useful for the children to learn about asthma and we devised several activities to show them how this affects sufferers."

These included trying to breathe through straws of differing diameters and folding up large pieces of cling film to show how delicate lung tissues are.

The pilot scheme forms part of a New Forest PCT initiative to raise awareness about medicines and the PCT among members of the public. Dr Curwain said that school nurses have been made aware of the scheme and he hopes to be visiting other schools after the summer holidays.