Healthy Living Pharmacy: Holding an awareness event/campaign on substance misuse
Published on: 2nd May 2017 | Updated on: 1st June 2022
This page contains links to resources and information which pharmacy teams may wish to consider using when planning a health promotion event/campaign focussing on substance misuse.
This page is ‘work in progress’ and will continue to be updated.
Click on a heading below for more information.
Resources to assist with finding local data
- Public Health England – Health Profiles: This tool provides a snapshot of health and wellbeing across each local authority (LA) in England as portrayed by a range of indicators. They are intended to stimulate discussion between local government and health service providers by highlighting local needs and providing comparisons with other areas as well as with the national average
- Public Health England – Healthier Lives: This is a tool that allows the user to select an area on a map of England to view the prevalence and treatment of diabetes or hypertension, prevalence of drug or alcohol abuse, and the provision of NHS Health Checks. This information can be mapped by LA or CCG and can be compared in a table against other LAs or CCGs. A search function for individual GP practices is also available to show how they compare to other practices in their CCG
- Office for National Statistics – Drug misuse deaths by local authority: this tool shows the mortality rates for deaths related to drug misuse
Community Pharmacy England resources
- Communicating with patients page on the Community Pharmacy England website
- Healthy Living Pharmacies page on the Community Pharmacy England website
National awareness campaigns
| Campaign | Dates |
| International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking |
26th June 2021 |
| International Overdose Day | 31st August 2021 |
National charities & resources
| Charity | Resources available |
| Frank | |
| Leaflets | |
| Posters | |
| Other resources | |
Key facts & statistics
- National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse – Facts & figures
- NHS Digital (formerly known as the Health & Social Care Information Centre) – Statistics on Drug Misuse
- Home Office – Drug misuse statistics
- Community Pharmacy England – Essential facts, stats and quotes page relating to substance use and misuse
Training resources
- BMJ Learning – Motivational interviewing in brief consultations
- e-Learning for Healthcare – Making Every Contact Count e-learning
- e-Learning for Healthcare – Population Wellbeing Portal
- P3 – Public health awareness campaigns with impact (requires log-in)
- Royal College of General Practitioners – Drugs: Management of Drug Misuse (Level 1)
- The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education has a number of programmes available on substance use and misuse
Campaign/event tips
- Get in touch with local schools/colleges/universities to find out if they are also planning events/campaigns to coordinate activity
- Events or campaigns might include how an overdose could be prevented or how it should be responded to
Further resources
- e-Learning for Healthcare – All Our Health programme
- Facebook – Making Every Contact Count (MECC) Community
- Health Education England – Making Every Contact Count
- The NHS Website – Drugs and drug abuse
