The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the recipient of the 2016 Script Your Future Media and Communications Outreach Award from the National Consumers League.
The award is part of the Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge, a competition designed to engage health-profession students and faculty across the nation by encouraging teams to develop creative ideas, events and initiatives to raise public awareness about the importance of medication adherence. Script Your Future is a public awareness campaign coordinated by NCL and its more than 135 public and private stakeholder organizations, which include challenge sponsors the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation, the American Medical Association, the National Community Pharmacists Association and the American Pharmacists Association.
For 2016, the adherence challenge incorporated a video component into the Media and Communications Outreach Focused Award in order to encourage the development of high quality videos to promote medication adherence beyond the challenge. The School’s submission was orchestrated by the School’s Phi Delta Chi chapter with students throughout the School participating. PY4 Amanda Gorman and PY3 Stephanie Salch led the initiative. Key aspects of the submission included an informational video, social media outreach and mayoral proclamations from Mayor Pam Hemminger of Chapel Hill and Nancy McFarlane, a pharmacist and mayor of Raleigh.
“The Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge has been an innovative method for our future healthcare professionals to engage with their local communities,” said Lucinda Maine, Ph.D., executive vice president and CEO of AACP. “The communication and events held in these communities provide essential information and strategies for patients to improve their medication adherence and ultimately their health outcomes.”
The award will be presented during the upcoming 2016 AACP Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, on Sunday, July 24, 2016. The School will be awarded a certificate and a stipend to use to further advance community outreach in medication adherence.
Launched in 2011, Script Your Future is a campaign of the National Consumers League, a private, nonprofit membership organization founded in 1899. NCL’s mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. As an advocacy organization, NCL is working to educate consumers and key health stakeholders on the importance of taking medication as directed. For more information about the Script Your Future campaign, visit ScriptYourFuture.org.